Shinyuu
by Bam-There You Go
Summary: After returning to Konoha and staying there for 7 and a half years, Sasuke is still solitary and alone. Will he finally find a friend in the man standing in front of him, or will he push away new and old friends to wait for his best friend to return? -permanent hiatus-
1. Chapter 1

**Shinyuu: Chapter 1**

Edited: 7/17/09

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_"I love you," a woman said as she looked lovingly up to her husband, smiling in a way that made his heart melt as a tear fell from his eye. _

_His wife was sick and dying, his only son lay on another bed, beginning to show signs of the same fatal disease. He looked away from his wife to where his son lay on the opposite side of the room, asleep with a fever and a cold sweat. The boy's body would jerk spontaneously due to the intense flashes of pain that would spike through his body. More tears fell from the fathers face onto the floor. He was the only one, the only one not to get the illness, the only one immune to it. His wife began a fit of coughing, barely able to breath, drawing his attention back to her. _

_After a few minutes the coughs had subsided and she spoke in a dry, pained voice, "Please, help our son...take him to a different village...take him to get help." _

_He grabbed her hand and lifted it in his own. "I won't; I'm not going without you, I can't leave you behind." He gently explained; more tears fell and landed on his wife's hand._

_She smiled sadly, caressing the side of his face with a gentle, shaky hand " I'm dying, I won't live much longer...our son still has a chance to live, but only if you leave now. Promise you will go...promise me you will go tonight."_

_The wall that held back his river of emotions suddenly crumbled and he burst into uncontrollable sobs, resting his head on the side of his wife's bed. He knew; he knew it had to be done, that he would have to leave his wife in the village to take her last breath while he left with their only son in hopes of making it to a nearby hospital before his son, too, would breath no more. He knew that no matter what, he had to respect and fulfill his wife's dying request. _

_"I...I promise!" He choked out as his wife soothingly stroked his hair. "I promise, I promise, I promise." He repeated to himself, trying to make himself follow through._

_"I really do love you," She cooed tenderly as she ran her fingers through his hair._

_The man looked up to his wife's smiling face; she was always smiling, even through hard times, always. He smiled back, the one he used only for his family, his true smile; "I love you too, I love you."_

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"Dad..."

A soft, tired voice brought him back from his reminiscing thoughts.

"Dad, I think I'm going to be sick." The boy continued in his painfully dry voice that was so soft and weak that it could barely be heard.

The man walked over to the side of the road and gently helped his son off of his back and to the ground. His son had not eaten solid food in several days, only drinking water and eating bread which he would throw up half an hour later. Really, there was nothing in his son's stomach for him to throw up, he had not eaten in hours and guessed that the slight motion of riding on his father's back was twisting his son's stomach and making him sick. His son dry heaved for several minutes then began to vomit blood; the man began to rub his son's back and speak comforting words to him.

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_He had left that night as promised, carrying only his son on his back and a small bag of food and coins. He walked through the night, only stopping when his son felt terribly sick and needed a rest, arriving at the nearest hospital at dawn the next day. He immediately asked a doctor to cure his son; give his son medicine, an antidote, anything; after an exam, many tests, and a five hour wait, the doctor told the father what he had concluded._

_"We are not exactly sure of the cause of the illness, we've not seen this kind of disease before and it seems very complex--"_

_"How long will it take to heal my son?" The man asked – demanded, not listening to any of the words the doctor said._

_"We will have to run more tests before we can be sure--"_

_"How long will it take to heal my son?" The man asked again as an agitated scowl began to grow on his features._

_"We will try the best we can to quickly make an antidote that will heal him--"_

_The man grabbed the doctor by the stiff white collar of his shirt and slammed him into the wall directly behind them, holding him there; there was a loud shattering noise made as a picture on the wall next to them fell to the ground and shattered, making several nurses rush into the hallway to inspect the scene. He held the doctor against the wall, high enough so the man's feet could not touch the ground, and shouted in a threatening tone, "How long will it take to heal my son?!"_

_The doctor stuttered, mouth agape, not expecting the sheer anger and aggression that poured from the man, "We...we're not quite sure--"_

_The man pushed the doctor into the wall again, his tone was horrifyingly calm compared to moments before as his eyes angrily glared into the doctors, "How long, Doctor?"_

_The doctor gulped loudly, "At least three or four weeks."_

_The man let all his emotions out in an enraged yell as he released the doctor's shirt, letting him drop to the ground. He walked across the width of the hallway and cried out again as he punched the wall multiple times then slid down to the ground on his knees. "No, no, there's not enough time; he'll die, he'll die if I don't get him help in a couple of days." He spoke softly to the wall and to himself._

_A nurse cautiously made her way over to him, "Sir...sir, you need to just calm down."_

_"No, there's no time; I have to save my son, I promised to make him better..." He weakly replied as tears silently rolled down his face._

_"Sir, we need your approval to run more tests before we can help your son."_

_"I promised, I promised."_

_Several minutes later, after he had composed himself, he swiftly picked up his son and left the hospital. He had decided to find her, to find the one person who would be able to heal his son; the legendary sannin and medic, also known as the Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, Tsunade._

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Sasuke, Sakura, and Shikamaru stood in Tsunade's office accompanied by two ANBU, all of whom, excluding those wearing masks, looked extremely bored. They had just arrived back from a very easy and simple C ranked mission; the entire week had been boring as they were escorting some merchants from a village in the fire nation to one in wind, stopping at many small villages along the way. All of the ninja who were currently standing in Tsunade's office were skilled enough to handle A rank or higher missions, but each had a reason for completing a lower ranked one. Sasuke was the main reason for the easy mission, he had just recently been allow to resume taking missions again after his return to Konoha and had to start all over again...as a genin, therefore, he was given a C level mission to complete. The ANBU had went on the mission, but they were not assigned to protect merchandise and sellers, no, their mission was to accompanying one Uchiha Sasuke as he was required to have two ANBU with him at all times, also one of the restrictions placed on him upon returning to Konoha. Shikamaru had simply joined because there was an open spot for an easy mission where little to no work was required. Of course, he snatched at the opportunity, where as Sakura, although happy to go on a mission with her old teammate and friend, had not wanted to attend such a boring mission. She had no choice though, Tsunade needed one more man, or woman, to fill the empty spot and no one else had been willing to do so with the Uchiha traitor as one of the team members. Hence, the five ninja stood waiting for the Hokage to address them.

"So what is the report on your escort mission?" She asked, question directed towards the mission leader, Shikamaru.

Shikamaru sighed heavily before replying in a monotonous, dull tone, "All went as planned; everyone arrived safely with all their belongings in the final destination. There was a small feud between several of the merchants in the caravan toward the end of the trip but we managed to solve the problem quickly and fairly – it was all quite troublesome."

Tsunade nodded and was about to release them before Sakura spoke up, "Tsunade-sama, we heard a strange rumor while on the mission that you may like to be informed about."

Tsunade raised a curious eyebrow and asked for Sakura to continue.

"While traveling we were talking with many of the different merchants and all of them mentioned a widespread sickness that had plagued many non-ninja villages. They mentioned that the sickness was deadly, if not treated, and many people that lived in smaller villages without medical ninja had died." Sakura shrugged as she finished, "I just thought it was strange and that you should know about it."

"Hmm, that's the first I've heard of that, I should look into it a bit." Tsunade mentioned to herself in contemplation, and then looked back up to the awaiting ninja, "You are dismissed, thank you for the information."

The five left together and began walking down the crowded, busy streets of Konoha, squeezing through crowds of people who were shopping and enjoying others' company.

"Hey guys," Sakura spoke, drawing their attention to her, "How about we go grab something to eat?" She asked tentatively, nervous due to the tight, unbalanced relationship between the two males in the group.

"I can't, I have to go home and watch the kids. Temari wanted to go shopping as soon as I got back; it's so troublesome." He gave a shrug to her as she smiled back at him in an understanding manor. "I guess, I'll see you later Sakura..." he paused, trying to decide whether to continue speaking. He looked over in Sasuke's direction, a slight disapproving scowl involuntarily sliding into his features, "Later, Sasuke." He hated the man; the man that had betrayed his village and left; the man who's best friend had spent endless years trying to bring him home, not even paying attention to himself or the friends that were still around him; the man that was received with open arms back into Konoha and was only given a slap on the hand as punishment; the man that had caused their friend to leave Konoha. He stopped thinking along those lines as he waved to Sakura, who happily waved back, oblivious to his hate for the Uchiha, and jumped up to the rooftops to quickly return home.

Sakura turned to Sasuke, repeating the question in case he didn't hear her the first time, although she knew that he had, "Sasuke, do you want to grab a bite to eat with me?"

Silence; Sasuke continued walking, looking forward, without event a twitch in reply to Sakura's question.

He had been like that ever since they had released him from prison; actually he had been like that ever since Naruto had left on a mission and never returned after he had practically dragged Sasuke back to Konoha against his will. No one knew for sure why, if he didn't want to stay in Konoha, why he didn't leave. Everyone knew that if he wanted to, Sasuke could ditch the two ANBU that mindlessly followed him around. Some people thought that Sasuke really did want to be in Konoha, that he was just pretending he didn't like the place, although no one could fathom why. Yet others, those who knew Sasuke and Naruto's relationship, such as Iruka, Kakashi, Tsunade, and even the whole of Rookie 9, they knew that Sasuke could not make himself leave, could not force himself to, again, abandon Konoha because he knew this time that Naruto would not come after him and bring him back. They saw how he waited, how he was constantly waiting for Naruto's return, although everyone knew that he never would; Sasuke was doing all he could for his best friend Naruto by waiting for him, as he still was not allowed to leave Konoha for another four and a half year unless on a mission.

Sasuke continued looking straight forward, walking towards the outer gates of Konoha, never speaking, never once looking towards Sakura.

She sighed, she knew that she wouldn't get a reply, but couldn't help herself from trying. "Ok then, I'll see you later Sasuke." She left and made her way to the hospital, hoping to take her mind off her long time teammate by doing some work.

Sasuke continued walking towards the outskirts of Konoha, his two personal ANBU trailing behind him, more alert as they drew closer to the gate. It was normal though; Sasuke often spent the majority of his time sitting on top of Konoha's walls that kept intruders out, and villagers like him in. He always sat right above the gate to Konoha's one and only entrance. Most of the time people would wake and see a man, the Uchiha, sitting upon the open gates, looking out into the vast forest surrounding the village and when they would make their way back home, as the sun was setting, he would still be there, his silhouette the deepest shade of black as the sun set in front of him and his back was towards them.

Sasuke was happy this way, as happy as he could be; just waiting eternally for his friend to come back, scanning the horizon for a lone figure to walk towards the gates of Konoha with an idiotic smirk on his face. He often thought about why Naruto had left Konoha in the first place after working so hard to bring his comrade back, but would always end up coming to some absolutely random and unrealistic solution, thus, he still, after seven and a half years of waiting, had no idea why the blonde had left. Other times he would busy himself with wondering why he, alone, didn't get rid of his ANBU trailers and run off to find his friend; although he spent boundless hours thinking of clever and tricky ways to escape his Konoha prison and abandon his ANBU guards, he could never bring himself to leave the Hidden Village of the Leaf, the village that he knew his friend was most definitely going to return to once he was ready to come back.

He heard the ANBU talking below him like they sometimes did. Sasuke would occasionally listen in on their conversations about their family at home or the new restaurant that was opening up in town or when they talked about how big of a jerk their ANBU captain could be, but, however, when they talked about Naruto and himself he would always tune them out, like he was doing now; he had heard them before, talking about rumors and how happy they were that the last surviving Uchiha had returned and how thrilled they were that they finally managed to make Naruto, the jinchuuriki, leave Konoha for good. Sasuke would tune out the monotonous voices of the two ANBU below him when they discussed the rumors going around about how the Uchiha had come back to rid the village of the jinchuuriki or that Naruto had been too scared of Uchiha Sasuke and had decided to tuck his tail between his legs and run away, along with many more rumors concerning the two ninja, all of which infuriated Sasuke to the core; he couldn't stand how they talked so calmly about it, how they assumed that he had made Naruto leave, when in fact he didn't, not intentionally anyways. Naruto had just decided to leave one day after Sasuke's punishment was declared and no one knew why.

Every time Sasuke would get mad about the false rumors, it would remind him of how mad he was at Naruto, who had taken an assassination mission with a few other ANBU and jonnin ninja and had simply disappeared without even saying goodbye. No one in Konoha knew what had happened to the boy, not even his teammates; he had simply vanished into thin air. Everyone had wondered about the boy, whether they hated him or not, they wondered if Naruto had been killed, or captured, or if he had simply decided not to come back.

A strong, cold, moist gust of wind blew against Sasuke's body, extracting him from his thoughts. He noticed that the sun had completely set and the moon was gaining power in the sky which had turned a dark, threatening shade of grey in anticipation of a fierce thunderstorm. He scanned the horizon for any signs of people, and when he saw none, he looked down to his ANBU guards, one of whom was asleep while the other had remained on watch.

Sasuke sighed as he decided to jump down off the wall, walk back into Konoha and go home for some much needed rest; the ANBU, of course, followed. A loud roll of thunder crashed in the clouds above them. Sasuke continued walking through the nearly deserted streets of Konoha, seemingly unaware of the worsening storm around him. After he had returned and been released from jail, he had decided to make use of the Uchiha compound and move into his old house. He had cleaned the place up with Sakura and bought new furniture since all the previous contents of the house had been thrown out. There was plenty of room for him in the house, so he had given one of the guest bedrooms to the ANBU who were told to watch the Uchiha while inside his home as well as outside. Usually, while inside the house, only one ANBU would watch him while the other would relax in the designated bedroom. The living arrangement had worked out well so far, as the ANBU would rotate every week, they would bring their personal items with them and place them in the room and then pack up and take their stuff again when they left.

The foreboding rain finally began to let loose as he came to his house. He unlocked the door and stepped inside, allowing the ANBU to enter before he shut the door again and locked it. He made his way into the kitchen where he started to make some supper for the three of them. Like every evening for supper, he began to make some ramen, not the instant kind in the package, the real kind; he had learned how to make it himself not long after being released from prison.

He was getting out some bowls to serve the delicious meal in when a huge crash of lighting sounded right outside the window followed by a bright flash of lighting that light up the entire house subsequently startling Sasuke and causing him to loosen his grip on the bowls he had been carrying, letting them fall to the ground and break into several large pieces of clay. Both ANBU came rushing into the kitchen to find out what had happened. They were relieved to find it was just a broken dish and retreated to the living room to wait until dinner was served.

Sasuke stood there, unmoving, and just stared down at the now broken bowls. His brow knit in a look of serious contemplation and wonder. These bowls were not just any bowls, theses bowls had contained special sentimental value to him; before Naruto had left, while Sasuke had been in jail awaiting his trial date, Naruto had come to visit him carrying two steaming hot bowls of ramen. Naruto had held a red bowl with an intricate white, black, and gold design on it through the steel bars and had asked Sasuke if he wanted to eat some ramen together. They had eaten and talked together, then eventually Naruto left taking both bowls with him. Naruto had then given both bowls to Tsunade and asked her to give them to Sasuke first thing when he got out of jail, and, although she thought it was strange that Naruto would have her give Sasuke the bowls, and the thought of giving someone a bowl, of all things, she agreed. Hence, he was sweeping up the two broken bowl, wondering if there was some strange reason he had dropped the bowls. Of course, normally, this wouldn't be a strange occurrence, but he was a ninja, a very skilled ninja; it's not very often, if ever, a skilled ninja accidentally breaks something. He sighed as he threw away the bowl and grabbed two new ones from the cabinet, he knew he was just being paranoid; he didn't even believe in superstition.

Sasuke served the three bowls of ramen, ate quietly at the table, cleaned up and took a shower as one ANBU retreated to his room and the other stood right outside Sasuke's bathroom door. Sasuke got out of the shower, put on some baggy, black pants that he wore around the house, then headed to his bed to hopefully get some rest; the ANBU followed the Uchiha into the room and sat in a chair against the wall where he could see both windows in the room, the only door, and the Uchiha on his bed.

Sasuke sighed, he hoped he could get some sleep tonight; as of late, sleep was hard to come by and he would usually either lie in bed, walk around Konoha, or train. Sasuke sighed a second time as he rolled over onto his side as an irksome thought passed through his head, 'I could probably actually get some sleep if these stupid ANBU didn't have to watch my every move, even while I sleep!'

After several hours the rain had lightened to a light sprinkle and Sasuke was still awake; he growled lightly at how evasive sleep had become. He sat up and grabbed a shirt from the floor and headed to the door. He waited in the living room as the ANBU that had been watching him woke his partner and the three of them headed out of the house. Sasuke walked, he didn't care where to, he just needed to walk, to do something instead of laying in bed hoping Lady Luck would be on his side and grant him grateful sleep. He walked for a while, not even noticing where he was headed until he reached Konoha's gate. He looked up at the spot he usually sat, above the now closed doors. He climbed up to the top and sat down, scanning the horizon for a single dark figure, but came up with none. He exhaled deeply. His mind was blank; he could not think of anything and simply busied himself with memorizing the surrounding land, occasionally scrutinizing the only road that led to Konoha's gate. The rain had subsided and was now only drizzling slightly, the ground and road had become muddy and large puddles of water littered the pathways. The air was thick and humid, an afterthought of the storm. He sat there for a long time, doing nothing; feeling not the cold wind that occasionally blew and stung him with the tiny droplets of water, not noticing how his ANBU complained of sitting outside at such hours of the night, and barely noticing when the sky began to faintly glow with an orange-pink light as the sun was just waking from its peaceful slumber. He decided he should head home and try to get an hour or two of sleep before heading to the Hokage Tower to receive a new mission. He scanned the skyline where the road seemingly stopped short and ran into the sky, almost not catching the slight movement in the distance. He looked closer, trying to identify the thing in the scarce light.

"Sharingan," He spoke in a flat voice.

The ANBU looked up from their spot on the ground and became slightly worried as they heard the Uchiha activate his red eyes. They decided to jump on top of the gates to see what the Uchiha was looking at. They saw something, a person, but could not tell who it was.

Sasuke stared towards the man whom he could see slightly better with his Sharingan eyes. He could tell that it wasn't his friend Naruto who had spiky blond hair, three black markings on each of his cheeks, and always wore a crazy orange jumpsuit. No, this man had fairly short, light brown hair, pale, cold looking skin, and a normal outfit of loose khaki brown pants that stopped mid calf and a light blue baggy t-shirt. He also noticed something somewhat odd; the man was carrying a small boy in both of his arms, a jacket wrapped around the boy to shield him from him cold and the rain. The boy had dark brown hair and sickly grey skin, but he could not tell what the small boy was wearing due to the jacket wrapped around his body. Sasuke noticed that both people were soaking wet and had to wonder how long they had been in the rain and why they were traveling at this time in the morning. He noticed how the man with light brown hair walked very slowly, stumbling quite often, as if he had been traveling non-stop for quite some time. He had a feeling, a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach that something was off, not in a way that made him think of intruders, but in a way that made him think that he had to help this man as he was still several miles out from Konoha.

"Guys," Sasuke spoke.

The ANBU looked over to him startled, for the past two and a half years that Sasuke had been watched, he had only ever spoken when addressed, much less to them, so this rare moment when Sasuke had spoken had surprised them both.

"We have to go help them."

If the ANBU had not been surprised before, they were extremely surprised now; not only did Sasuke not speak, he never concerned himself with anyone except himself.

There was no reply, Sasuke waited a few seconds before he decided that the ANBU's silence meant yes. He was about to jump down to the outside of Konoha's walls before one of the ANBU, the one with a lion mask grabbed his wrist.

"Uchiha, technically we're not allowed to let you outside of Konoha's gates."

There was a long, silent pause as the two stared at each other, Sasuke giving him one of his coldest glares.

Lion sighed, "Fine, but we're going to put chakra cuffs on you, and you had better not run off." The ANBU warned, still staring at Sasuke.

Sasuke nodded in agreement immediately and held his wrists out to the ANBU. Lion pulled out a metal set of hand cuffs and put them on the Uchiha. As soon as they snapped shut, Sasuke could feel his chakra being steadily vacuumed out of him. Lion then preformed a long string of hand seals before tapping the seal located right above Sasuke's heart. The seal was meant to keep Sasuke in the village. If he were to leave without expressed permission, the seal would vacuum away all his chakra until he passed out and would alert the Hokage. The ANBU were the only people who knew how to release and activate the seal and were only allowed to release it for missions or during emergencies.

"Ok, let's go." Sasuke said flatly.

The three jumped down from the wall. Sasuke nearly fell to his knees when he landed on the ground in pain. The seal on his chest stabbed painfully at him, draining him of his chakra to an extent that he wasn't sure if he would be able to walk all the way out to meet the stranger. The ANBU had not completely nullified the seal, and had just lowered the amount of chakra it consumed. That along with the chakra cuffs sorely drained him of nearly all his chakra. They started towards the man at a slow pace since Sasuke could not use chakra to help him jump from tree to tree or run quickly without getting fatigued. They had walked up to the man stopping not five feet in front of him and waited a few seconds.

The man looked up suddenly as if he had just realized the three ninja were there. He looked over the three with a scrutinizing gaze, unsure whether to trust them or not. When his gaze fell on the Uchiha with chakra cuffs around his wrists, his expression looked somewhat surprised. He looked for the Konoha headbands on their person and was relieved as he confirmed the fact that, yes, they were from Konoha.

The man smiled weakly, proud in his accomplishment of traveling so far and finally reaching Konoha, before his face turned worried and concerned; he looked down to his son who was trembling from the cold rain. "Please, you have to help my son. He's sick and dying; the only one that can help him is Tsunade-sama, the legendary medical ninja.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at this as he continued to examine the man and the two ANBU turned to each other and began talking in low whispers. Up close Sasuke could see the man's light green-grey eyes that held certain darkness, a sadness that could not be measured. The man's eyes held sorrow, worry, and a slight glimmer of hope. Sasuke walked up to the man, the ANBU stopped talking and watched the Uchiha carefully and with slight suspicion.

Sasuke held out his arms to the man, "Let me carry him the rest of the way."

The man stared at the ninja in front of him a while before reluctantly handing his son to the man, relieved that ninja had seen him and decided to help.

The man smiled, "Thank you."

He said simply, a smile of gratefulness and happiness spreading over his features, before his knees buckled beneath him and he fell, quickly becoming unconscious from lack of sleep and exhaustion.

The ANBU saw that the man was starting to get weak after handing over his son, and Bird quickly caught the fatigued man before he hit the ground.

"I guess we should take them to the hospital and call for Tsunade-sama." Lion said, glancing at both father and son.

Sasuke made no comment but re-adjusted the boy in his arms, which was quite hard considering that his wrists were cuffed together with barely an inch of chain in between, and turned back towards Konoha, walking at a steady pace. Lion and Bird looked to each other and followed the Uchiha wordlessly.

Sasuke looked down at the boy in his arms, taking in every defining detail. The boy looked to be about five or six years old and had dark brown hair that was chin length and framed his angular face. His face; Sasuke could tell the boy was extremely sick, The boy's cheek bones were far more defined than they should've been; Sasuke guessed that the boy hadn't eaten a good meal in some time. His eyes had deep, dark bags underneath them, and his skin was so pale and grey, that if he hadn't seen the small rise and fall of the boy's chest, feel the warm bursts of air that softly collided with his face, and hear the boy's faint heartbeat, he might have though the boy was dead. Besides that, the boy was incredibly light; more evidence of an illness and lack of food. The boy was also very cold and wet, most likely caused by the heavy downpour all night; the boy's body trembled viciously in an attempt to warm up.

He quickened his pace and soon arrived at the Konoha hospital and demanding that Tsunade come and help the boy immediately. The nurse obviously saw the critical condition the boy was in and quickly led Sasuke and Bird down the hall to two different rooms, calling out orders to nurses along the way who hastily scurried into action.

Sasuke entered a room, already full with bustling nurses, and placed the frail boy on the bed. He was roughly shoved away from the bed by nurses who were trying to inject IVs and other medical devices and backed up so as to get out of the way, although he stayed in the room, unable to look away from the boy that looked so helpless. For some reason, the second his eyes fell on the boy he was drawn to him; he wanted to help the boy, the stranger.

He noticed a familiar pink-haired kunoichi come in and begin to examine and diagnose the ailing boy as her hands glowed blue with chakra. After a few minutes, Tsunade entered the room and ordered everyone out except for Sakura and a few other nurses. As they were leaving one of the nurses grabbed Sasuke's arm and gently pulled him out into the hallway as well.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Author's Note:**__ Special thanks to Shounen-Ai__ and guywithhair202 who reviewed last chapter. It is because I got such quick reviews that this chapter has come out so quickly! And thanks you very much for such complimentary words! Also, if my Japanese is wrong, please tell me so I will be able to make a mental note and fix it. Happy reading!  
**guywithhair202** - Thanks for the 'awesome' review. Wow, sorry, that was corny.  
**Shounen-Ai** - I'm super psyched you liked the story thus far! _

**Shinyuu: Chapter 2**

_**Words to Know:**_

_Arigato_ – thank you

_Otousan_ – father

_Sake _– (sah-kee) a Japanese fermented, mildly alcoholic beverage made from rice

_Hai_ – yes

_Ano _– um

_Musuko_ - son

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

He was warm now, no longer wet and cold; he faintly wondered why until he heard two women talking to each other right next to him.

"Shizune, hand me the medical report." A woman said in an authoritative voice.

He heard some shuffling and then the woman that had just spoken sighed lightly.

"There's nothing much to worry about, he's just suffering from exhaustion; he's in a much better condition than his son and doesn't seem to have the same illness. All he needs is some sleep and a few good meals. I want you to…"

He stopped listening to the word the woman said as his memory came back to him. He had left his village and come to Konoha to find the medical ninja, Tsunade. He was only a few miles out from the village walls when three shinobi had appeared in front of them, two wearing black uniforms and white masks, and the last one wearing black pants, a white shirt, and hand cuffs. He remembered asking for help and then complying with the cuffed ninja when he offered to carry his son the rest of the way.

He sat up quickly, wanting to get up and find out about his son; that was a bad idea. Once he opened his eyes, he was blinded by the bright lights shining from above him and the sterile white walls staring at him. His head pounded and he brought his hands up to comfort his throbbing temples as blood suddenly rushed to his brain; he groaned.

"Sir, you shouldn't do that; you need to lie back down."

He assumed this was Shizune; she didn't have the same authoritative voice as the first lady.

The nurse gently grabbed his arm and tried to help him lie back down but he lazily swatted away her hand, opening and turning his eyes to look at her. "Where is my son? Did you treat him? Show me where he is, I want to see him." He said nearly in one breath.

Shizune smiled softly, her voice equally gentle, "He's fine, we've given him medication and he's sleeping now."

This didn't comfort the worried father much though, although he was relieved that he had made it to Konoha in time to get his son help. "Where is he, I need to see him!"

The nurse, Shizune, looked to the first lady with a questioning gaze; the lady was a tall woman with long blonde hair pulled back into two ponytails and big, no, not just big, gigantic boobies.

The blonde woman frowned then sighed, "I guess I can let you look through the window of your son's room, because I know you won't calm down until you see him, but," she squinted her eyes at the patient, threatening him to protest, "there are nurses working inside making sure that he continues to improve, so you cannot go in, and afterwards, you have to come straight back and go to sleep; you have a pretty good case of exhaustion and I'm sure you're tired."

The man reluctantly nodded and stood up, wobbling a little bit until he got his balance, and then followed the blonde woman out the door and down the hallway.

"So, what's your name?" The woman asked, trying to start a conversation at the same time as learning about the man; they weaved past nurses, patients in wheelchairs, and patients being pushed along in beds.

"Kouhei," the man replied mindlessly.

"I'm Tsunade, the Hokage of Konoha." She smiled as she looked at the man, trying to seem kind and trustworthy, until she noticed that the man did not react to her and continued staring in front of him, as if he didn't know he was walking right next to the most important person in the village; she frowned slightly.

Kouhei didn't really care who the lady was, he just wanted to see his son, to make sure he was alright. As they continued walking he spotted the shinobi wearing black pants and a loose shirt, he was stretched out over four or five hard plastic seats, asleep. He noticed the man's clothes were wrinkly and his black hair was disheveled; it looked as if he had stayed in that spot the entire time since he had brought him and his son to the hospital. He also noticed that the man no longer wore the cuffs around his wrists as one hand acted like a pillow under the man's head and the other lay flat atop his chest. Tsunade stopped and pointed to a door that was right next to the sleeping ninja. He quickly walked up to the door and peered in; his son was there, asleep on a small bed in the middle of the room. Three nurses constantly walked around the room and checked on the heart monitor, the fluids that were connected to the boy, and various other machines that kept track of the boy's health. He sighed in relief and a light smile grazed his lips. His son looked like he was recovering quickly; he could already see the color in his cheeks that hadn't been there for the past week.

"You've seen your son, now let's head back; you need your rest." Tsunade said, rather, commanded.

Kouhei complied reluctantly as he broke his gaze from the small window and turned down the hallway.

Tsunade walked Kouhei to his room, making sure that he immediately lied down, "By the way, once you and you and your son are out of the hospital, come to the Hokage Tower and see me, we need to talk."

Kouhei nodded and readjusted himself in his bed before promptly falling asleep.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Kouhei woke the next morning as the sun's pink, orange, and golden rays burst through the window. He slowly sat up and noticed that no one else was in the room, but there was a tray of breakfast sitting on the end table beside him. He smiled happily at the food and welcomed its smell. He quickly ate then got out of his bed and cautiously walked into the hallway, lest someone stop him and make him go back to bed. He headed down the hallway to his right and stopped at the door he had seen his son in the day before. Before he walking up to the door, he saw that the black haired ninja was no longer asleep on the chairs and looked up and down the hall for him but didn't see him nearby. He walked up to the door's window and gazed in. His son was still there, and looked even better that the day before because he was awake and sitting up in his bed, although he was still hooked up to all of the medical machines, seemingly talking to someone who was digging into one of the cabinets. He smiled at the scene as the person digging in the cabinets said something and his son laughed. Kouhei reached for the door handle and was about to open the door when the other person in the room grabbed something from the cabinet and walked over to the bed, setting down white paper and some colored pencils. Kouhei's expression was one of surprise as he recognized the person; it was the black haired ninja who had carried his son to the hospital, the same one that had slept outside his son's room. He continued to watch the two, his plans of entering the room forgotten.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"Here, these are the only colors I could find." Sasuke set the blank pages and the few colors on the white bed sheets.

The boy smiled happily as he grabbed a black pencil and beginning to draw on one of the pieces of paper, "Arigato!"

Sasuke grabbed one of the chairs that was positioned against the wall and pulled it over so he could sit next to the boy's bed and watch him. He wondered to himself why he had felt like he should come in and keep the boy company, why he felt the urge to talk with the boy. He smiled to himself, although, anyone that didn't know him wouldn't be able to tell he was smiling; he had barely talked to anyone except Naruto upon returning to Konoha, but somehow he was able to talk to this boy just as easily. In fact, he had probably talked to this boy, whom he had just met, more in one hour than he had for the past seven and a half years. He couldn't help but be amused at the fact.

"Ninja-san, do you want to color with me?" the boy, whom Sasuke found out was named Ryuu, asked lightly, smiling hugely as he offered a sheet of paper.

Sasuke looked at the boy blankly before looking at the offered piece of paper. Ryuu wanted him to color? He hadn't colored since before his academy days, maybe even since he was four. No way, there was no way he would be caught dead coloring, but, he didn't want to refuse and make the boy upset.

He mentally sighed, 'I am so going to regret this, and the ANBU are going to be laughing themselves to death.'

He took the pencil and paper somewhat warily, as if he thought it was an exploding tag that would be set off when he touched it.

"What should I draw?" He asked Ryuu dumbly.

"Anything," Ryuu shrugged and continued brightly while holding up the picture he was working on, "See? I'm drawing me and you."

Sasuke grimaced at the sloppily drawn picture of himself and the boy, 'If that's me, then I'm not an Uchiha and my brother didn't kill my whole entire clan.' He sarcastically thought to himself.

"Oh." Sasuke replied unenthusiastically, still wondering what he should draw. He thought for a moment before he started drawing two figures with kunai held to each other's throat, sparring together on a training ground. He added green, then black, then he grabbed yellow, then orange and blue, before he knew it, Sasuke was drawing just as passionately as Ryuu and he could have sworn he heard muffled laughs.

There was a knock at the door and both fervent artists looked up from their work.

Kouhei slowly walked into the room and waved sheepishly while smiling, "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"Otousan!" Ryuu yelled happily, jumping up and down with his knees on his bed; if he hadn't still been connected to the heart monitors and IVs he would've ran up to his dad and jumped into open arms.

"Hey, Ryuu, are you feeling better?" Kouhei asked as he walked in, a little bit unsure how to act around the black haired shinobi.

Ryuu nodded and held up his, now finished, picture for his dad to see, "Me and Ninja-san are coloring pictures!"

"I see, and they are very beautiful pictures too." Kouhei patted the top of his son's chocolate colored hair before looking up to the ninja. "It's nice to meet you, I'm Ryuu's dad; my name is Kouhei. Thank you so much for taking care of my son." Kouhei smiled cheerfully has he held out his hand to shake.

Sasuke looked at the outstretched hand and slowly lifted his own to join and shake, "Hn, Uchiha Sasuke."

"Sasuke!" a girl yelled from the door, startling Ryuu and Kouhei where as Sasuke had felt his teammate's angry chakra heading towards their room. "I've been looking all over for you!" she said in a loud voice, not too much quieter that yelling.

"Hn," was Sasuke's oh so dramatic reply. He looked at her flatly, eyebrows raised slightly at her outburst.

"Tsunade need to see you, she says you're in big trouble for leaving Konoha's gates and that you'd better get your sorry behind in her office and give her one heck of an excuse before she sends you right back to prison!" By the end on her little escapade she had been yelling rather than talking loudly and shaking her fist in her teammate's face.

Once she calmed herself down she saw the other two occupants in the room and blushed fiercely, "Oh, I didn't notice you in here; are you the people Sasuke brought into the hospital the other day?"

Kouhei smiled and walked over to the pink-haired kunoichi, "Yeah, I'm Kouhei and that's my son, Ryuu."

"It's nice to meet you Kouhei-san; my name is Haruno Sakura, one of the medics here and Sasuke's teammate. Actually, Tsunade-sama needed to speak with you too, and since you're up and about, why don't you just go with Sasuke."

Kouhei didn't respond immediately and Sakura saw the reluctance in his posture, "Well," he replied gradually, "I don't want to leave Ryuu here by himself, and he hasn't recovered enough to be walking around."

Sakura smiled assuredly, knowing that he would probably say something of the sort, "I can stay with him until you get back. I needed to check up on his condition anyway."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Kouhei said goodbye to his son and Sakura then went to his room to change into his own clothes and to pick up his bag. He then went with Sasuke and Sasuke's ANBU to the front desk where Sasuke officially checked him out of the hospital. The four of them walked outside and began walking through the streets of Konoha towards the biggest building in the village, the Hokage Tower, the ANBU trailing several feet behind them. Kouhei looked around excitedly at the building they were passing.

"Wow, I never expected Konoha to be so exiting, Ryuu will love it here!" Kouhei exclaimed with an expression of pure joy only a young boy would have.

Sasuke smiled ever so slightly.

"Have you lived here your whole life, Uchiha-san?" Kouhei turned to look at Sasuke.

Sasuke looked at the man, not expecting such a personal question; he shrugged, "More or less."

Kouhei hummed lightly, apparently in thought, "Sakura-san mentioned something about you getting in trouble for leaving the village and getting sent back to jail. What was she talking about?" When Kouhei had finished his question, he had looked at Sasuke, attentively waiting for an answer.

Sasuke turned his head towards Kouhei, again not expecting the personal question, and stared at the man, not with his usual disdainful glare, just a blank gaze. "Hn, I was put in jail for leaving Konoha a while back and I'm still suffering some of the repercussions, one of them being to stay inside Konoha's gates unless on a mission. Therefore, when I went outside Konoha yesterday morning to help you, I broke the rules and could possibly get sent back to jail." Sasuke surprised himself, he didn't mean to say so much, but the words just fell from his mouth. He cursed himself for his need to talk to the strangers.

"Wow, I didn't know you were sacrificing so much!" Kouhei said in awe as he looked admiringly at Sasuke, "I'm sorry, though, that you might be punished on our behalf."

"Hn," was Sasuke's only reply.

They continued walking in much the same manor until they reached Tsunade's office; Kouhei looking around in wonder and occasionally asking Sasuke random questions, although considerably less personal.

Sasuke knocked on Tsunade's door and waited for a response as Kouhei explored up and down the hall, curious about everything he saw.

"Come in," she shouted from her desk on the opposite side of the room.

Sasuke leisurely walked in and stopped a few feet in front of Tsunade's desk, stuffing his hands in his pockets and waiting for Tsunade to address him.

"Sasuke," she said quietly, quite a bit of agitated anger in her voice, as she stood from her desk and walked over to him. She gently touched his chin and ran her baby soft fingers along his jaw bone seductively; he was as stoic as ever. She smiled, and then pulled back her hand, forming a fist, and punching him hard in the face. Right at that moment, Kouhei had finished his exploration journey and had watched as Tsunade's fist connected with Sasuke's angular cheek and sent him flying through the wall and into the hallway.

He stood in the doorway, mouth slightly open, as he was about to say something before the brute show of strength, and stared, aghast, at Konoha's Hokage. It was then that Tsunade noticed Kouhei standing in the room looking at her, bug-eyed, and with an expression of disbelief. She blushed lightly as she hadn't known Kouhei had been here, or else she wouldn't have punched Sasuke, that hard.

"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama, but I have to say that was a little much!" Kouhei said as he looked at the whole in the wall and walked right back out the door and to where Sasuke lay on the hallway floor. Kouhei asked if Sasuke was okay, and tried to help him up, but Sasuke was having none of it. He stood up and stomped back into the room towards Tsunade, bruised cheek and all. He lifted a clenched fist and was about to swing when two ANBU dropped down, seemingly out of nowhere, and grabbed Sasuke's arms, restricting his movement.

Kouhei watched all of this, now standing in the hallway, looking through the hole in the wall Sasuke had crashed into a few moments ago.

Tsunade smiled mischievously, "Like people always say, when some slaps you in the face, turn the other cheek." She stated almost mockingly as she raised her fist and punched Sasuke again on the opposite cheek; Kouhei had to jump back out of the way so that he wouldn't get hit by Sasuke who crashed loudly into the hallway wall, creating a maze of cracks in the wall.

He walked over to Sasuke again and held out a hand, "Are you sure you're going to be alright?" he asked suspiciously and truly worried for the man.

Sasuke ignored him and stood up by himself, albeit slowly and painfully, and just stood there for a while, staring at Tsunade who had a victorious smirk on her face. Both of the ANBU, Tsunade, and Kouhei stared at Sasuke, trying to figure out what he would do next, but he just stood there, glaring and brooding. Sasuke finally sighed heavily and calmly walked up to Tsunade, stopping out of her arms reach, and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to remain dignified even though both of cheeks had already turned black and blue and had began to swell, squishing his eyes upward a little.

Tsunade's smile remained as Sasuke continued to glare daggers at her; her smile grew bigger and she lifted her hands in an innocent gesture before slowly walking around her desk and sitting down. "Now," she said leaning back in her chair and grabbing one of her many sake bottles, taking a swig, "What do you think you were doing, leaving Konoha's gates; sure you had a good reason, but nonetheless, rules are rules, and you have broken mine." She sighed to herself and leaned forward onto her desk, twirling the bottle of sake in a circle on its base, "I suppose I should go easy on your punishment as you were trying to help Kouhei, and it is true that if it had taken any longer Kouhei's son very well may have died." She was quiet, thinking to herself while staring down at the bottle of sake. She looked up to the group that was watching her, finality in her eyes, "Sasuke, as punishment, you will be taking care of Kouhei and his son until they are ready to leave. They can stay in your house, eat your food, and you can buy them new clothes and whatever else they want. Also, you are to show them around the village and take them to any place they might want to go such as the market or the park or to get something to eat. Understood?"

Sasuke didn't look at Tsunade, instead lifting his nose in the air a bit. "Hn," he grunted softly.

Tsunade narrowed her eyes at the rebellious man, weighing the pros and cons if she were to walk over and punch Sasuke again, just because he got on her nerves. She sighed and leaned back in her chair again, deciding against the action.

She looked over to Kouhei who had followed Sasuke back into the office, "Is this arrangement fine with you, Kouhei?"

Her voice was so soft and gentle compared to a few moments ago when speaking to Sasuke that it had surprised Kouhei a bit and it was a few second before he realized she was addressing him.

He laughed lightly, and smiled, "I'm sure that we'll have a great time!" Kouhei swung his arm around Sasuke's shoulders, shaking him lightly in a friendly manor. Sasuke turned his murderous glare to Kouhei who only laughed at the swollen sight. Tsunade smiled at Sasuke's reaction and the ANBU had to stifle their bouts of laughter as well.

"Hokage-sama!" a chunnin ran into the office, somewhat out of breath, "there has been an incident at the Academy that needs your immediate attention."

Tsunade sighed, "Very well, I'm on my way."

The chunnin bowed silently before leaving the room.

"Sasuke, I would like you to stay with Kouhei for the remainder of the day, at least until I send more ANBU to replace Lion and Bird." She looked to Kouhei regretfully, "Although I would like to trust you and let you roam freely, Konohagakure has many strong enemies, and, well, you can never be too careful. I'll ask that one ANBU is always with you, and Ryuu must be with either you or Sasuke at all times."

Kouhei nodded, smiling and waving a hand dismissively.

She stood up, set down her sake, and pulled on her outer coat. "Oh, Kouhei, before I forget, once you get settled into Sasuke's house come see me, we need to talk about you son and a few other matters." She smiled reassuringly.

"Hai," Kouhei replied, somewhat confused.

Kouhei and Sasuke left, along with Lion and Bird, and headed back to the hospital. They walked into Ryuu's room and saw that Sakura was still there, as she had promised, sitting in a chair and reading a medical journal.

Sakura smiled at the two as they entered and lifted a finger to her lips, motioning for them to be quiet.

Kouhei looked to his son who was fast asleep. He walked over to Ryuu and tucked the covers in and brushed to disheveled hair out of the boy's face. He smiled and whispered to Sakura, "Thank you for staying here with him, you don't know how much it means to me." He paused as he walked over to where Sasuke and Sakura were standing so as not to talk across the room and wake Ryuu. "How long has he been asleep?"

"Almost immediately after you left his head hit the pillow and he was out." She chuckled to herself, "It's funny, one minute he's hyper and moving around and the next he's completely still."

Kouhei smiled, "Before he was sick he would be up and going all day, never stopping long enough to even say hello, but he's been sleeping most of the time lately; I'm glad some of his former self is staring to re-emerge now that he's getting better."

"Yeah, he's going to pretty tired for a while; his body really took the illness hard. For several months still he's probably be sleeping a lot and getting nauseous fairly often; it's just going to be a slow recovery." She looked at the sleeping form of the boy in something akin to pity.

Kouhei grimaced slightly, "What exactly did he have that could wear his body out so bad?"

Sakura looked back to Kouhei, "Ah, well I think Tsunade-sama wanted to explain everything in detail to you; I'm guessing since you don't know she hasn't gotten to telling you yet, but it's somewhat complicated, so I'll just leave it to her. Anyway, I have to go check up on some of my other patients, I'll be by later." Sakura waved as she left the two men and sleeping boy in the room alone.

Kouhei grabbed the chair Sakura had been sitting in against the wall and pulled it next to Ryuu's bed, speaking to Sasuke while doing so, "I'm just going to stay here with Ryuu until he wakes up; he'll probably panic if he wakes up and doesn't see anyone he knows; he's always been that way."

"Hn," Sasuke replied as he walked over to the window and stood there, scanning what he could see of the road that led to Konoha. He hadn't been at his spot on top of the gate since he had carried Ryuu to the hospital the previous morning, deciding to stay with the boy and his father, and he was starting to feel out of place; he wanted to go back and wait for Naruto, but he was given the responsibility of taking care of Kouhei and Ryuu while they stayed in Konoha and would feel guilty if he left them for hours on end to do something that everyone thought was pointless, not to mention Tsunade had told them to stay together so that the ANBU could watch all three of them.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Ryuu slept the rest of the day and night, not even waking until about noon the following day. Kouhei and Sasuke had stayed in the room, by the boy's side, the entire time, only leaving twice so the two of them could get something to eat. Kouhei would always sit by his son's bed, sometimes smoothing the boy's unruly hair and other times just resigned himself to holding his son's hand. Sasuke on the other hand, although he cared about the boy, wished he could be elsewhere, preferably his spot atop the gates. Although he didn't look it, he was anxious and impatient to return there.

After Ryuu had woken up, eaten, and began to chattering incessantly, Sakura came in to check on them.

"Hello, Ryuu, how are you feeling?" She asked as she checked the monitors.

"Perfect!" He replied chirpily, watching her write down information on the clipboard, "Ano, Sakura-san, how much longer do I have to stay in the hospital? It's really boring here." He looked up to her hopefully with his big brown eyes.

Sakura smiled at the puppy-dog face Ryuu was giving her, "Actually, Tsunade-sama said that as soon as you woke up and as long as you feel okay, you are free to go, although, you can't be up and about; you just need to rest. So," she continued, looking down at her clipboard one last time, "as long as you come to the hospital and get a checkup every day, you can leave. Your heartbeat is steady now and you seem to be improving on schedule."

"Really?" both Kouhei and Ryuu said simultaneously, Ryuu a tad bit more enthusiastically than he should've been.

Sakura smiled, "Yes, really."

Sasuke headed to the front desk with his ANBU to check Ryuu out of the hospital while Ryuu got dress and slowly made his way outside with the help of his father. Ryuu had been wobbly at first since he had not walked for quite some time, but eventually they were walking at slow steady pace, flanked by the black clad, white masked ANBU, through the market which was the most direct route to Sasuke's home. Just like Kouhei, Ryuu was amazed by the sight of the big, bustling village, eyes wide, mouth agape, and pointing at various things that interested him. He had never been to a big village before; he had always lived in his little country-side village with his parents.

About ten minutes after walking through Konoha, and half way to Sasuke's humble abode, all four adults could tell Ryuu was getting worn out and tired from the walk; it was reasonable, his body was still weak from the deadly sickness.

Kouhei had started to get worried and quickly spoke up, "Musuko, do want a piggy-back ride?"

Ryuu looked up to his father happily and nodded.

This had become somewhat of a habit for the two, ever since Ryuu was young he would love to ride on his father's shoulders and be so high in the air – as he grew older he resigned to piggy back rides – and thoroughly enjoyed the feeling.

The group stopped walking and Kouhei crouched down to the ground so that Ryuu could easily climb on. When Ryuu had been younger and smaller, although he hadn't grown too much – he was rather small for his age – Kouhei used to throw him in the air and catch him before placing the small boy on his shoulder. As Ryuu grew older, the boy would jump on his father's back and then readjust to make himself comfortable, although since he had been sick they had worked out a routine so that the motion and movement wouldn't jostle the boy's stomach too much.

"Comfy?" Kouhei asked as the group continued walking.

"Mhmm," Ryuu said lightly, head rested on his father's shoulder.

Kouhei smiled and continued walking; he was comforted by the touch of his son and enjoyed giving piggy-back rides as much as Ryuu enjoyed having them, although for different reasons. He liked the feeling of his son's steady breath on the back of his neck and the pulse of his son's heartbeat on his skin to comfort him and remind him that the important person in his life was still there.

As they continued walking, Sasuke continually snuck small glances at the father-son pair. It reminded him of something he didn't want to remember; how he had ridden on his brothers shoulders after twisting his ankle by trying something too complicated to show off. It was one of the few happy memories he had, but it also made him think of quite a few bad memories like how his brother had killed his entire clan and how he in turn had killed his brother and only living blood relation. Sasuke inwardly smiled though, as he thought about the relationship between the father and son; how Kouhei was light-hearted and childish but could easily become worried and caring for his son, and how Ryuu was so much like his father and enjoyed being around him.

Sasuke soon dismissed those contemplations as he thought that he was beginning to grow soft.

They had arrived at the Uchiha compound a good fifteen minutes later and began to make their way to the center of the cluster of buildings to where the clan's head lived, meaning Sasuke's house. Sasuke noticed Kouhei looking around at the deserted, almost ghost town, but was grateful when he didn't ask any questions because, honestly, he didn't want to give any.

When they reached Sasuke's house, he unlocked the doors and motioned for the others in the group to enter before he also walked in and locked the door, a meaningless habit he had gotten in to. The ANBU had noticeably relaxed once entering the house, as one walked down a hallway and into a bedroom, closing the door, and the other, the one with a birds mask, had stayed next to Sasuke while he locked the door and followed him into the living room shortly after. Sasuke looked at Kouhei who was looking back at him expectantly with a soundly sleeping Ryuu on his back. The boy had fallen asleep shortly after getting on his father's back, sleep overtaking his will to see the new place he was in.

"Follow me, I'll show you were you and Ryuu can keep you stuff and sleep." Sasuke headed down a hall that ended with a door that led outside to the back yard, although it was covered by a roof, and walked all the way to the end where he opened a door and motioned to Kouhei, "You both can stay here, it's the only room that's made for two people, although there are two separate beds."

Kouhei walked into the room and went to the small bed against one of the walls and gently laid Ryuu down. The boy squirmed and moaned a little at the movement but soon got in a comfortable position. Kouhei took off Ryuu's shoes and lightly placed them on the floor. He then pulled the blanket up from the end of the bed and tucked the thick warm bedspread tightly around the boy's body. He smiled at the sight of his son sleeping with a serene look on his face. He stroked the boy's hair fondly, studying the boy's features that reminded him so much of his wife.

Sasuke, meanwhile, had been standing in the doorway with Bird, watching Kouhei put Ryuu to bed. He wondered what if felt like to have a father that was so caring and loving as Kouhei, as his own father had rarely even congratulated him on his accomplishments, let alone tuck him into bed and stay by his side when he was sick. It pulled at his heart strings, making him wish that his father would have expressed himself in that way more.

"You know, he looks so much like his mother; dark brown hair, high angled features, and deep chocolate brown eyes that it makes me think of her every time I see him." Sasuke heard Kouhei say softly so as not to wake Ryuu; he wasn't sure if Kouhei was talking to him or to no one in particular, just voicing his thoughts.

Sasuke, not being one to comfort people only said, "Hn, I think I'm going to go make some ramen, you hungry?"

Kouhei looked to Sasuke and nodded, silently making his way out and closing the door behind him. They walked back through the hallway and Sasuke went into the kitchen while the ANBU and Kouhei went into the living room to wait.

Kouhei sat on the couch and looked around the room; it was quite dull, frankly. The walls were off-white and there were very few pieces of furniture, all a deep, coal black color that consisted of a coffee table, two bookcases packed with scrolls, a desk that was clean and tidy with only a few papers laid out, and a deep red couch that was rather comfy.

"So," Kouhei voiced once he had finished observing his surroundings, "Do you follow Sasuke-san around all the time?" He looked towards the bird-masked ninja with interest.

The ANBU looked up from the scroll he had been reading to the other occupant in the room. "Yes, we switch with different ANBU every week, today is the last day for our week; new ANBU will be coming in the morning to switch with us." Bird said without expression in his voice, merely informing. As for the ANBU's facial expression, Kouhei couldn't tell as it was still covered by the white mask.

Kouhei looked thoughtful for a minute before he continued talking, "What's your name?"

"Bird," the ANBU replied shortly, wanting to get back to his reading.

If Kouhei thought the man had a strange name, he didn't show it as he didn't stop talking, "Thank you for allowing Sasuke to come and help us the other night. I know it was against the rules and you might've gotten in trouble, but really, thank you."

The ANBU didn't reply, only turning back to his scroll; he wasn't trying to be rule, he just didn't know how to respond, so didn't. Thankfully, Sasuke called them and told them that the ramen was ready.

Kouhei, Sasuke, and Bird sat at the table and were soon joined by Lion. They all began to eat the homemade ramen and Kouhei stared, transfixed as Bird and Lion removed their masks and began eating, careful not to get caught when one of the two looked up from their food. Kouhei knew that ANBU never took off their masks and decided to question the two.

"Excuse me, but isn't it strange for an ANBU to remove their mask in public?" Kouhei asked, pausing from his meal and looking at the two. The one named bird had bright green eyes, a small nose, and short black hair and the one with a lion mask had longer brown hair and brownish eyes.

Lion explained offhandedly in calm, somewhat gentle and soothing voice, "Since we're always with Sasuke and it's bothersome to have to try and hide our faces while we eat, all of the ANBU have decided to just take off our mask while we eat inside the house, some even all the time while in Sasuke's home. We do ask, though, that you don't tell anyone what our faces look like as it is suppose to remain a secret."

Kouhei smiled and nodded as he resumed his meal. The group ate quietly and Bird and Lion put their masks back on before cleaning up their dishes and walking away from the table.

Kouhei leaned back in his chair and sighed, "That was good, thanks for the meal Sasuke. I know it's early, but I'm pretty tired so I'm going to head to bed; tomorrow I've got to take Ryuu to the doctors and then I'll have to go see Tsunade-sama, then maybe after that I'll go get some clothes for Ryuu and I."

"Hn," Sasuke replied as he grabbed his and Kouhei's bowls and took them to the kitchen where he began to clean up the small mess he had made while cooking.

Kouhei walked down the hallway toward the room he and Ryuu were sharing to get some much appreciated rest.

Sasuke however, was in no mood to sleep, it was still early in the evening; however, Tsunade had asked that they stay together until more ANBU arrived the next day and each would have their own escort. Sasuke longed, craved – like and addiction – to go back to Konoha's gates and simply sit, forgetting everything except the friend he'd lost and hoped would return. As it was, though, he could not. He settled himself, instead, to work a new jutsu he was learning and started reading a scroll at his desk.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Author's Note:_** _Again, if you find a problem with my Japanese, or even with grammatical and spelling errors, please tell me so that I will be able to fix it and better by writing!**  
Dimly** __–__ Lots more of Ryuu-kun and Sasuke, especially in the next few chapters!**  
Randa-Chan** – Yeah, there is a lot of OC-ness in this story, but they make the story fit together.__ You'll see exactly what I mean quite a bit later in the story._

**Shinyuu: Chapter 3**

_**Words to Know:**_

_Daijoubu desu ka?_ – Are you alright?

_Un, daijoubu desu._ – Yep, I'm fine.

_Otousan_ – father

_Ne_ - right?/do you agree?

_Toire wa doku desu ka _- Where is the toilet?_  
_

_Iie_ – no

_Hai_ – yes

_Matte_ – wait

_Okaasan_ – mother

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"Gah!!" Sasuke yelled, sitting up out of bed and stomping out of his bedroom, not even bothering to put on a shirt and effectively startling the ANBU who had been watching him.

Sasuke made his way to the training grounds in his back yard, hoping to release some frustration by practicing taijutsu. Ever since he had returned to Konoha he had been sleeping less and less. Often times thoughts would crowd into his mind making it useless to even try to sleep; all he could ever think about is waiting, wondering why Naruto had left, questioning his own actions, if he had done something wrong or could have done something better, and wishing that Naruto had just stayed in the village instead of leaving and running away from his problems.

After he had been released from jail he had been able to get at least five hours of sleep each night, but now he struggled for even one. Tonight though, he couldn't even go to his haven, Konoha gates, to sort out his thoughts; no, he had to stay at home because the ANBU also had to watch Kouhei and Ryuu who were asleep.

He got into stance and delivered a swift, hard, roundhouse kick to the side of the training log with his left foot.

"Maybe I really should get my mind examined," – another swift kick – "I can't feakin' stop" – another, much more powerful kick; Sasuke's bare foot was beginning to bruise but he took no notice of it – "thinking of NARUTO!"

Sasuke stepped back and gave a powerful spinning kick to the log with the same foot, making part of the log, the part that had been repeatedly hit, shatter into splinters.

"Ah!" Sasuke yelled and grunted at the same time, although not very loudly, crouching into a somewhat fetal position to cradle his foot, although he quickly straitened upright. Bird, who had been watching from several meters away, quickly rushed over to the Uchiha to give assistance but was pushed out of the way. Sasuke limped over to a wooden bench and examined his, now swollen, ankle; it was only bruised, a large one at that, but nothing serious. It was only a result of kicking the wooden log too hard without shoes or any form of ankle support. He determined it would hurt for only a couple days then go away, so he stood up and tried to walk away some of the pain, ignoring the rest. He walked over to the wooden post again, this time deciding to use his other foot, practicing a combination of sidekicks, roundhouse kicks, and front kicks.

"What am I talking about?" Sasuke spoke to himself while trying to perform a particularly difficult combination of kicks, "I'm not crazy; I just have a lot of things on my mind."

Even though somewhere, in a deep, dark, twisted part of his mind he was telling himself to get help, he was too stubborn to recognize he was obsessing and strangely addicted to waiting for Naruto. He would never admit it, but heck, there was never a minute of his day not spent thinking about Naruto, at least until Kouhei and Ryuu had come, it had been all he would ever think about.

"Ninja-san, daijoubu desu ka?"

Sasuke spun around, surprised by the small voice. Ryuu looked at him tiredly but with concern etched on his face. The boy was still dressed in the clothes he had worn that day, but they were wrinkled and twisted along with his out-of-control hair.

"Un, daijoubu desu," Sasuke said quietly, barely heard to the other two outside – Bird and Ryuu. Sasuke walked over to the bench and picked up the towel he brought outside with him, wiping the newly developed sweat from his brow. In a little louder voice, he spoke as he walked over to where the boy stood, "What are you doing up anyways? I thought you were asleep."

The boy coughed a few times in his fist before he spoke in a quiet, sleepy voice, looking up at Sasuke, "I woke up because I wasn't feeling good, and couldn't get to sleep; I didn't want to wake Otousan. Then I heard someone out here, so I decided to come and see who it was."

Sasuke studied the boy. His face was pale and if the arm the boy had wrapped around his own stomach was any indication, Ryuu had an upset stomach too.

"Are you hungry? You missed supper." Sasuke asked in an informatory way.

The boy nodded and followed Sasuke as he silently led them to the kitchen.

"Is ramen okay?" Sasuke asked, already getting out one of the quicker, instant cups while Ryuu sat down at the table in the dining room which was open to the kitchen, thus allowing them to talk. Ramen was a cure for everything, something he'd unintentionally picked up from Naruto.

"Mhmm," the boy sounded while watching Sasuke boil some water and then pour it into the Styrofoam cup of ramen.

"Ninja-san, do you like being a shinobi?" Ryuu asked as Sasuke brought the ramen and a pair of chopsticks over, setting them in front of the boy, then taking a seat of his own at the table.

Sasuke was caught off guard by that question, while he inwardly laughed at the nickname he'd somehow acquired. He sighed at the question that had been asked, "Sometimes."

Ryuu frowned at his question being avoided, "Shinobi are really powerful, ne?" Ryuu asked again, while slowly consuming the steaming ramen so as not to disturb his upset stomach more.

"They can be."

"Are you a strong ninja?"

Sasuke frowned, although he pushed his expression away before the young boy could see his change in emotions. He didn't entirely mind talking about ninja, but he certainly didn't want to talk about himself, especially the ninja part. "Some would say so."

Ryuu was quiet for a minute before looking up from his meal to Sasuke with a puzzled expression that made Sasuke smile to himself. "Is it easy to become a ninja? I mean, not just anyone can become one, right?"

"No, you have to train hard and be very dedicated."

"Hmm," was the boy's only reply as he continued to slowly eat from his cup-of-ramen.

After a few minutes of silence, Ryuu suddenly looked up with a look of pain and worry washed over his face. "Ninja-san, toire wa doku desu ka?"

Sasuke pointed to a door that was just in the living room, but was visible from where they sat.

Ryuu didn't even respond, slowly standing up from his chair, walking into the bathroom and turning on the light.

Sasuke then heard a puking sound and got a little worried. He stood up and slowly made his way to the bathroom where he saw Ryuu leaning over the toilet vomiting up the food he'd just eaten, and then heaving for quite a while; Ryuu couldn't stop until after he had already started throwing up blood. Ryuu flushed the toilet and shakily stood up. Sasuke, seeing that the session had left Ryuu weak, supported the boy's arm and handed him a towel to wipe his face, and then guided him to the couch and helped the feeble boy sit down. Sasuke stood in front of the couch, examining the boy as Ryuu coughed a bit then leaned back in the couch and held his stomach with one arm.

"Maybe I should get your father," Sasuke said, having no idea what to do in this situation.

"You don't need to wake him, I'm fine. Besides, he's still tired from the trip." Ryuu said, looking up at Sasuke almost in a pleading manor.

Sasuke continued to stare at Ryuu calculatingly.

"Really, it's fine; I've been sick for a long time. Every time I eat something I always throw up, but it's getting better, I was able to eat more this time." Ryuu gave a weak, yet reassuring smile.

Sasuke sighed, giving in, as he sat down on the couch next to Ryuu.

The ANBU, of course, had come inside with the two and had taken a seat in the floor against the wall by the book case and had begun to read a scroll, not showing that he noticed the other two's presence.

They were silent for quite a while, not talking, just sitting and listening to the sound of each other's breath; it must have been longer than Sasuke realized because he felt Ryuu lean over sleepily on his bare arm. He looked down at the boy, somewhat shocked at the familiar contact, but calmed himself down so as not to wake the boy. He looked back up and returned to his silent thinking.

"Ninja-san, do have any family?"

Both Bird and Sasuke looked at the boy in surprise, whose eyes were still closed and was still leaning against Sasuke and whose arm had not yet removed itself from the boy's stomach.

Ryuu had just a personal question that both ninja knew was still an emotional point in Sasuke's life. Sasuke frowned a bit and didn't answer immediately. "Iie," he responded, revealing no emotion.

"Oh," Ryuu said in reply, saddened at the answer he'd received.

It was silent; it must have been at least ten minutes before Ryuu spoke again.

"Ninja-san, do you have any friends?"

Again Bird and Sasuke stared at the sleepy boy; it took longer for Sasuke to answer this time than the time before. He wondered why the boy didn't just fall into the heavy grip of sleep's hand. "Just one, but he left Konoha a long time ago." Sasuke said evenly, again relaying no emotions although his mind kept remembering special times he had spent with his friend.

"Oh," Ryuu's even more saddened reply.

Again there was quiet and Sasuke focused on the sound of the steady breathing in the room, trying to forget the memories that had been forced up by Ryuu's questions, trying to make his mind as blank as it could be.

"Ninja-san," Ryuu asked again, once more gaining both ninja's attention even though his eyes were still closed and he didn't notice the slightly annoyed looks, "Would you like to be my friend?"

Sasuke stared at the little boy that was almost asleep on his arm in shocked silence. He didn't even try to hide the surprise from his face as his brain kept repeating the question continuously in his head until he finally knew what Ryuu had said, although he couldn't find the words to reply to the boy. He just sat there on the couch in a stupor, with Ryuu resting against his arm and an ANBU reading a scroll on the floor, occasionally glancing up at him. The silence continued and he heard Ryuu's breath become more soft and slow and knew that the boy had finally fallen asleep. He didn't move though, he was still wrapped in his thoughts by the time the sun had risen that morning.

The question, in reality, had thrown him off balance, like a fierce wind knocks over a person walking on a tightrope. It was this feeling that Sasuke felt and that had him thinking. Ever since he'd come back all the friends he's previously had, like Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Lee, Neji, Tenten, and even Sakura, had shun him, pushed him away like a dirty outcast on some kind of level. Their reasons for doing this was their own, they had told him once when he was trying to make amends. He didn't understand why they were mad at him and decided to leave them alone, but Sakura had come to him later and explained the real reason why: one, because Naruto left soon after bringing him back, and two, the village as a whole has gladly received him back and wouldn't have punished him except for the fact that Tsunade had demanded he be punished in some way, shape, or form, but mainly because they all believe that Naruto had left because of Sasuke. Of course, no one knew why, but rather than always wonder and question, it had been easier for all of Rookie 9 and Team Gai to push the blame on Sasuke, no matter how unjust or unfair it may have been. They believed that he had caused their friend, Naruto, to high tail it out of Konoha. Since then, no one had really talked to him except Sakura, unless they were on mission, and even then it was minimal and with an undertone of disgust. It may have been the fact that his, at one time, friends, had just hated him more and more with each day that went by when Naruto didn't return, or it could have been the fact that Sasuke had pushed himself further and further away from those he once knew until no one felt like they could approach him, but no one had especially reached out to him since Naruto had.

It struck a nerve, brought back memories he didn't want to remember until his friend had come back. In some way, it also made him relieved, that through all his wrong-doings, even though Ryuu didn't especially know about them, someone was able to accept Sasuke the way he was, traitor or not. Ryuu had asked to be his friend; no one had asked him that since Naruto had, and he wasn't sure if he was willing to form bonds with another. He lifted his arm around Ryuu and let the boy sleep soundly against his chest.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

The sun had come out around six that morning, shining brightly and illuminating the living room. The songbirds had waked up too and were singing their chipper morning songs. Sasuke was still sitting on the couch, with Ryuu asleep and leaning against his chest. Lion had gotten up almost an hour earlier and had packed his items and traded posts with Bird so he, too, could pack his bag and be ready for the next shift on ANBU to arrive.

Before long there was a knock at the door.

Sasuke made no move to get up, instead Bird, seeing that Ryuu was sleeping against Sasuke, walked to the front door and let the guests in. The new ANBU walked into the living room, their small bags in hand, and stared at the sight of the loner Sasuke with a sleeping boy against him.

The shortest ANBU member began to laugh, although he tried to hold it in, and received a menacing glare from Sasuke. "You're pretty good with kids, aren't ya Sasuke?" The short ANBU asked, still trying to control his muffled laughter.

Sasuke continued glaring, "Hn."

The new ANBU set their things in the spare bedroom and returned shortly afterwards, their masks attached, now, to their belts.

Lion and Bird turned to the three and Lion spoke, "Nothing unusual, we'll leave you to it."

"Hai!" the three chorused.

Lion and Bird then escorted themselves out of the house.

The three new ANBU settled down in the living room, getting in comfortable positions. One lounged against the wall so he was directly in front of Sasuke, one joined Sasuke and sat at the end of the couch, and the last one, the shorter one, sat backwards in the desk chair.

The one sitting on the couch spoke first, without sarcasm or mockery in his voice, "So how did you end up as a pillow for the boy?"

Sasuke turned to look at the ANBU with a blank stare, "He wasn't feeling good and fell asleep while we were talking."

The short ANBU, who looked around the age of twenty-three, developed a large smile and a fake expression of shocked disbelief. He spoke loudly but not quite loud enough to wake the slumbering boy, "I didn't know you talked Sasuke!"

Sasuke glared but was cut short when they heard someone's bare feet slowly padding down the hallway towards them. "Oh, hello, you must be the new ANBU." Kouhei said as he entered the living room and noticed the three new additions to the house. "I'm Kouhei," He introduced, smiling and waving.

The ANBU on the couch smiled also, "I'm Cat, but you can call me Yamato around the house." The man had short brown hair and black eyes. He wore a traditional ANBU uniform with the turtle neck stopping right above his chin and a metal protector over his forehead and the sides of his cheeks; his mask, which looked like a cat, was hooked at his waist to his belt.

"Yo!" the boy in the desk chair called, holding up two fingers like a V, "I'm Monkey, also known as Konohamaru!" The boy had a big, cheesy grin on his face, accompanied by short brown hair and a red scarf tied around his neck that contrasted completely with the black and grey ANBU uniform he wore.

"I'm Crane," the one leaning against the wall with his eyes closed said, "better known as Hyuga Neji." The man had long black hair held together by a ponytail at the end and, when his eyes were open, they were a transparent violet color without a pupil. There was nothing significantly different about his ANBU uniform.

There was a pause between the group as no one knew what to talk about before Sasuke spoke, aiming to get his revenge, "Since when did you become an ANBU Konohamaru, I thought you were still too weak to qualify."

"Hey! I'm not weak; I'm goin' to be Hokage someday!" he yelled, taking no care to use an inside voice.

Sasuke gave Konohamaru a sarcastic disbelieving look.

"Actually, he became an ANBU last week; I was assigned to train him during all my missions, so he and I will be with you while Neji is with Kouhei." Yamato interrupted looking at Sasuke and then Kouhei as he spoke.

"Hn,"

"Ne, what are we having for breakfast? I'm starving!" Kouhei said, rubbing the back of his head embarrassedly.

"I can go make some ramen," Sasuke suggested while he tried to figure a way to stand up without waking Ryuu.

Kouhei both his hands, "Matte, I can make breakfast; I don't mind. I'll have it ready in ten minutes." Kouhei smiled before walking into the kitchen and turning on the stove. He began to look around the kitchen for various ingredients such as dashi stock, mushrooms, and soy sauce and mixed together a soup while also quickly steaming some rice. Meanwhile, the group of ANBU and Sasuke sat in silence. Exactly ten minutes later, Kouhei came into the living room to announce that breakfast was ready. Konohamaru rushed into the dining room while Neji and Yamato followed languidly.

Kouhei came over to Ryuu and sat him upright so Sasuke could get up. "Ryuu, Ryuu, it's time to get up; breakfast is ready." The father said softly while holding the boy's shoulders so he wouldn't flop back down on the couch.

Ryuu blinked, and then again before lifting a hand to rub his tired eyes.

Kouhei smiled, "Breakfast is ready, come eat." He stood up and held Ryuu's hand, escorting him to a seat at the table.

Ryuu, having not been awake when the new ANBU arrived, stared at the new people with still sleepy eyes. He gave a weak smile when the ANBU looked at him, "Ohayo gozaimasu." Even without his sickness, Ryuu was never quite a morning person. He didn't necessarily get grumpy, it just took him longer than others to wake up.

Yamato smiled warmly, "I'm Yamato, but call me Cat outside of the house," he pointed to Konohamaru, "this is Konohamaru and his ANBU name is Monkey, and this is Neji or Crane." He finished, pointing lastly to Neji.

"Ah, this is good! It's much better than eating ramen all the time like Sasuke does!" Konohamaru said while stuffing his mouth.

Sasuke scowled but paid the young ANBU no mind.

The group was silent a bit.

"Gaki, what's your name?" Konohamaru said, pointing at Ryuu with his spoon.

"Konohamaru, mind your manners." Neji scolded, not even looking up.

Konohamaru grunted.

"My name's Ryuu." The boy said, now a little more awake, thanks to the warm food.

"So," Kouhei said, starting a conversation, "Have you guys been assigned to watch Sasuke before? That excludes you, of course, Konohamaru, since you've only just become ANBU."

Yamato and Neji nodded.

"I have many times, more than I'd like to anyways." Neji said, hiding an insult in his words.

Yamato continued, although there was no hate or dislike in what he spoke, "I have a few time; it's really not as bad as everyone says it is, except for the fact we eat ramen for every meal and are always out by Konoha's gates. It's really, actually, an easy job."

"Hn," Sasuke said, ignoring Yamato's playful jest.

"Otousan, Otousan, may I be excused?" Ryuu interrupted, looking to his father seriously with his brow knit together in a frown.

Kouhei turned from his conversation to his son then looked at the half-full bowl of soup that still lay in front of his son, "Are you sure you can't eat anymore?"

Ryuu nodded solemnly.

"I suppose so then." Kouhei said, returning to his meal.

Ryuu quickly stood up and walked towards the living room and into the bathroom, shutting the door before vomiting his breakfast into the stool.

The people at the table looked at each other. Kouhei's concern radiated from his being.

"He did that last night after I gave him ramen, too; that's how he fell asleep on the couch." Sasuke reported to Kouhei who was standing up and walking towards the bathroom.

Kouhei comforted Ryuu and then lead the boy to his room and tucked him in bed, telling him to take it easy and rest. Kouhei came back into the dining area a few minutes later and began to pick up his and Ryuu's bowl. The group looked at him expectantly.

"He's lying down now. I need to go to the hospital though; Sakura-san didn't say anything about him throwing up." He absentmindedly spoke, worried, as he cleaned up and walked into the kitchen.

"Sasuke-kun, why don't you get Sakura-chan; she's the one taking care of Ryuu anyways, right?"

Sasuke nodded and stood up, "Kouhei, I'm going to go get Sakura, so you don't need to go to the hospital." Konohamaru and Yamato stood up and made their way after Sasuke to the front door.

Konohamaru paused when he noticed Kouhei's anxious expression. "Don't worry we'll be back in a few minutes!" he said, smiling big and giving a thumbs-up.

Kouhei forced a smile and nodded as he stood in between the kitchen and living room, looking at the door, seemingly lost in thought.

After the commotion had died down, Neji stood up and brought his dishes and the dishes that had been left into the kitchen, rinsing them off. Kouhei was still frozen in time. Neji sighed as he leaned against a counter, "I wouldn't worry too much, Kouhei-san."

Kouhei turned from his position to look at Neji, a confused look adorning his face, "Why do you say that?"

"Sakura is a very good medic, she can fix anything. Plus, Sasuke seems to care about Ryuu, more so than he has anyone in a long time, since our friend, Naruto, left Konoha."

Kouhei stiffened, eyes growing somewhat larger. He tried to continue the conversation to draw Neji's attention away from his reaction, stuttering at first, "H-how do you know?"

Neji caught how Kouhei acted in response to his statement when he mentioned Naruto, and took note how Kouhei was trying to hide his expression. "Sasuke and I, along with Konoha's Rookie 9 and the rest of Team Gai, used to be close friends. About fourteen years ago Sasuke abandoned Konoha, though, and our friend Naruto spent four years, tirelessly searching for him and trying to bring him back."

"Did he?" Kouhei asked. He started working on the dishes to try and subdue his body language.

"Yes, but then Naruto left right after Sasuke's punishment was announced; no one knows where he is now, or the reason he left, although all of Rookie 9 and Team Gai think that it's Sasuke's fault. Only Sakura has still befriended him, although he rarely talks to her."

Kouhei dropped a bowl in the sink. It didn't break, but he fumbled picking it back up, "Sasuke did receive punishment for leaving Konoha, correct?"

Neji nodded, watching the man grow ill at ease.

"Then why would you treat Sasuke differently? In the time I've been here, I've watched how Sasuke acts; he seems…lonely. Sasuke and Naruto, they were good friends, right? And you all were good friend with Naruto too?"

Neji nodded, although Kouhei continued without waiting for a reply.

"Then, do you think that Naruto would want you to ignore and hate his best friend?"

Neji stared at the man in front of him. One moment Kouhei was nervous and jumpy, and now, he was confident and saying something that he knew nearly nothing about, but was none the less saying something Neji had never thought of before.

"I suppose," Neji admitted as he closed his eyes to think.

"If I had left my friends, like Naruto did, I wouldn't want everyone to hate Sasuke just because I had issues with myself that needed to be resolved." Kouhei said finishing up and drying his hands. He walked towards the hallway, stopping in front of Neji, "I'm going to go see how Ryuu is doing."

Neji nodded, following Ryuu down the hallway and into the guest bedroom. There was truth to what Kouhei had said although something about the conversation bugged him. It could have been the way Kouhei was acting or how he seemed to know exactly what Neji was talking about and how to answer, but something similar could have happened to the man and he was just speaking from experience. Neji decided to think about it later and get back to his job of watching Kouhei and Ryuu.

Kouhei slowly opened the door and peered into the darkened room. He quietly stepped in, followed by Neji, and walked over to his son's bed.

"Otousan?" Ryuu spoke weekly, leaning up on his elbows in his bed.

Kouhei smiled and sat at the top of Ryuu's bed, gently placing the sick boy's head on his lap. Ryuu sighed lightly and closed his eyes, a hint of a smile covering his face. Kouhei began to stroke Ryuu's head, combing through the tousled hair with his fingers. They stayed this way for several minutes, son resting on his father's lap, as Neji stood next to the door.

"I miss Okaasan," Ryuu said simply, his eyes still closed.

"Hn," Kouhei grunted in agreement, not trusting his voice as his eyes became watery.

"When we go back home, let's bring Okaasan a big, beautiful flower so she can get better soon."

Kouhei smiled, but it was not a happy smile; it didn't reach his eyes and gave off a sadder aura than his normal smile. He moved his hand from running through Ryuu's hair to tracing Ryuu's jawbone and features that reminded him of his wife. The water that had been building up behind his eyelids became too great and rolled down his cheek until they fell onto Ryuu's face.

Ryuu opened his eyes, feeling teardrops drip down on his face, to see why his father was crying, "Otousan?"

Neji turned his head away from the two. He felt somewhat sympathetic that Ryuu still thought that his mother was alive and that he would see her soon. Most likely, he concluded, all the people in Kouhei and Ryuu's village were already dead and the two would probably never move back.

"Ah, when we see her we'll bring her a nice big bouquet of her favorite flowers." Kouhei replied, plastering on a fake smile as he wiped his fallen tear drops from his son's face.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

7


	4. Chapter 4

**_Author's Note:_** _Again, if you find a problem with my Japanese, or even with grammatical and spelling errors, please tell me so that I will be able to fix it and better by writing!  
**Randa-chan:** This chapter isn't quite action packed either, but I think there will be in the next few chapters.  
**Dimly:** Hmm, very interesting idea.  
_

**Shinyuu: Chapter 4**

**_Words to Know:_**

_Ano_ – um

_Ohaiyo_ – good morning

_Nani_ – what?

_Honto_ - really?

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"So," Sakura said as she entered the living room where Kouhei and Sasuke were waiting quietly on the couch, "I preformed a basic medical check on Ryuu and he seems to be progressing fine; the vomiting will go away with time, but since his stomach is the first part of the body that was attacked, it will be the last part of his body to heal." She dug around in her medical bag as she continued talking, "I have some medicine that he can take before he eats to help keep his food down; I can't promise that it will work every time or that he'll always be up to eating, but for the most part it should do its job." Sakura handed Kouhei a small bottle of pills and pointed out the directions on the label.

Kouhei's features brightened at the news, "Thank you so much for coming over, I do know what I would have done without you; I hope we didn't keep you from doing anything important."

Sakura blushed, slightly embarrassed, "Oh, it was no problem. Anytime you need me to come check on Ryuu, just call."

Kouhei walked Sakura to the door and said goodbye, then returned to the living room. He rolled the bottle of pills in his hands a few moments before he began talking to Sasuke. "Sasuke, I need you to watch Ryuu today, since he isn't feeling well, so that I can run some errands."

Sasuke folded his arms and leaned back in the couch while studying Kouhei blankly. He closed his eyes, apparently in thought before giving a slight tilt of the head, "Hn."

Kouhei smiled, "I'll probably be gone all day and come back late tonight. Here," Kouhei threw the bottle of pills at Sasuke who easily caught them with his eyes closed, "Make sure you don't forget these."

"Hn, I'm not an idiot."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"When they asked me to become Hokage, they never mentioned how much paperwork there would be!" Tsunade mumbled to herself signings and stamping papers from one stack at a slow, yet steady pace.

There was a knock at the door and Tsunade voiced for the visitor to enter.

"Ah, Tsunade-sama," Shizune said as she managed to walk through the door holding a stack of unsigned papers that rose above her head and blocked her line of vision, "These papers need to be signed by the end of the day." She made her way across the room and plopped the load on the desk.

Tsunade sighed melodramatically and let her head fall to her desk, making a loud knock. "I need sake; I might actually die today if I don't get some sake right now." She said in a low, depressed voice.

Shizune smiled at the worn out Hokage, "How about some tea, I'll go get some nice green tea to wake you up and keep you on your feet."

Tsunade grunted but Shizune interpreted it as a 'yes' and left the room.

There was another knock at the door. Tsunade sat there, motionless and not wanting to be disturbed. Another knock; still she didn't respond. The door opened slowly and man with light brown hair and green eyes cautiously stepped in.

"Ano, Hokage-sama?" He asked, seeing her slumped forward on the desk, "Is this a bad time to talk?"

Tsunade looked up slowly, frowning slightly until she remembered who the man was. "Ah, no, Kouhei, we can talk now." She silently cheered at finding an excuse to not finish her paperwork.

Kouhei walked in and sat in one of the chairs in front of the Hokage's desk.

"So, how are you and Ryuu fairing in Sasuke's home, I know he's not the most social or pleasant person to be around."

Kouhei chuckled at Tsunade's impression of Sasuke, "Actually, it's been very nice staying at Sasuke's home, although he is quiet, he doesn't ignore us and is hospitable. In fact," Kouhei mention, smiling at the recollection, "In fact, it seems as though Sasuke has grown somewhat attached to Ryuu."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow when hearing that the ever stoic Uchiha Sasuke was growing fond of a young boy whom he had just met a few days previous. She let the notion slide as she moved on to more important matters, "How has Ryuu been feeling since he left the hospital yesterday?"

Kouhei's expression grew sobered as emotions of worry, care and seriousness fluttered across his face, "He's been sleeping a lot; he doesn't seem capable of staying awake for more than an hour at a time, let alone walk around too much, and he sometimes gets stomach aches bad enough that wake him from his sleep. I called Sakura over this morning to take a look at him; he hasn't eaten barely anything since we've been at Sasuke's house and what he does manage to eat, he throws back up a few minutes later. Sakura gave us some pills that Ryuu can take before he eats; they're supposed to help him keep his food down. I just hope they work like she said they do."

Tsunade nodded thoughtfully, "Kouhei, let me ask you, how many people in your village became ill with the same sickness?"

"When I left, all of the children and elderly had gotten sick and most of them were dead, only maybe half of the adults were sick and very few dead, but everyone was steadily getting worse. By now, who knows how many are still alive; form what I saw, everyone that got sick died a few days later. I was the only person not to become sick." Kouhei's head hung low and he studied the floorboards as the village's deaths weighed heavily on his mind.

"Hmm, I see. Do you have any idea why you were the only villager that didn't become ill?" the Gondaime asked, effectively drawing back his attention.

He paused for a time, as if unable to reply before he voiced softly, "I don't know."

Tsunade nodded, watching him closely. "Before I continue, let me explain what exactly Ryuu and the people of your village were sick with."

Kouhei nodded, his full awareness focused on Tsunade's words.

"What Ryuu had was a very complicated disease that essentially attacks your chakra system; I've never before seen something quite like it. The virus starts near the stomach where the chakra coils are the strongest, and spreads through the chakra's circulatory system, closing off the 361 tenketsu along the way. Attacking the chakra system is bad enough because a person cannot live without at least a little bit of chakra, but it also attacks the major organs such as the stomach, liver, intestine, lungs, and eventually the heart, ultimately resulting in the person's death. I'm not positive, but it seems like ninjas who constantly exercise their chakra system would be less susceptible to the disease. It took quite a bit of investigating and research, but we've managed to stop the virus." Tsunade was silent for a moment as she let Kouhei process what he had been told. Kouhei nodded to Tsunade and she continued, "While I was examining and diagnosing Ryuu, I found out something…special about his chakra system. I'm not sure if it was an effect of the virus, but his chakra coils are very large for someone who isn't a ninja, especially at his age, and he seemed to have more chakra than even the average adult. I was wondering if you knew of anything that could have caused this or similar symptoms in others who had the virus."

Kouhei immediately shook his head, "No, that's the first I've heard on him having enlarged chakra strings and I wouldn't have been able to tell if others in the village suffered the same side effects."

Tsunade nodded as if only confirming earlier suspicions. "Anyhow, Ryuu should be improving steadily; as I'm sure Sakura has mentioned, he will need lots of rest and may get sick from time to time, but in a few months his body should be completely healed and he'll be back to an energetic young boy." Tsunade smiled as Kouhei's expression turned from serious to gratefulness and happiness that only a father could have possessed.

Kouhei's emotions did not last long though, as they soon turned to that of an almost hopeless husband with a small, reminiscent smile on his face, "This morning, before Sakura had come over, Ryuu was talking about his mother and how he misses her so much; he said that he wanted to pick a beautiful flower so that when we go back he can give it to her and wish her well." The man looked down to his hands that were in his lap, "I…would like to request a team of ninja to return to my village with me and look for any survivors along with burying the dead. I don't have the money now to pay for it, but I have my wife's and my life savings in the village and I can pay you fully when we return." He looked up to Tsunade hopefully and when she did not reply he continued, "I know that everyone in the village is probably dead by now, but, I just…I just need to see for myself, so I won't have to live wondering if I could have saved someone if I had gone."

Tsunade leaned back in her chair and folded her arms, she watched Kouhei as he sat in front of her, hopeful yet resigned. There was a knock at the door. "Come in." she called.

Shizune slowly opened the door and pushed it open with her hip as she carried a tray of tea with both hands. She paused when she noticed Kouhei sitting in the room, but continued to Tsunade's desk, "Oh, I didn't know that there was anyone else here besides Tsunade-sama, would you like some tea also?" She asked finally setting the tray on the corner of the Hokage's desk.

Kouhei shook his head distractedly, still studying Tsunade for a response.

"I suppose I could give you a team to escort you to your village and help you bury the dead, although I can't spare a very good team." Tsunade closed her eyes and smiled at the expression she knew was growing on Kouhei's face, "The only team I can think to give you consists of Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke; they should be sufficient, however broken they may be." She mumbled the last part to herself.

"Tsunade-sama," Shizune kindly interrupted, handing the piping cup of tea to Tsunade.

"Ah, thank you, Shizune." She took a sip and sighed gratefully for the rejuvenating drink before setting it on the desk and resuming her conversation. "Now, since it is decided that you will be going back to your village, we will need to figure out a place for Ryuu to stay as I am certain he will not be able to make the trip and is probably not mentally prepared to return anyways." She took another sip of her tea with a frown stuck on her face in deliberation.

"How about Umino Iruka, the academy school teacher? I hear he's really good with kids, and Ryuu would be able to go to the academy with him and interact with the other children." Shizune suggested, looking from Tsunade to Kouhei, then back again.

Tsunade's expression lightened, "Good idea, Shizune; please send a mission report to the members on Team Kakashi – they should leave tomorrow at dawn – and ask Iruka if he would be willing to help out."

"Hai," she said before grabbing the tea tray.

Both Kouhei and Shizune left as Tsunade sat in her chair with a blank and slightly thoughtful expression. Something wasn't right. She had a gut feeling that something Kouhei and her had talked about had been off, but she couldn't quite pin point the feeling.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"Yamato-sensei!" Konohamaru yelled as he ran down the hall from the bedroom to where Yamato and Sasuke lounged in the living room. "Yamato-sensei, this place is SO boring, so will you play cards with me?" Konohamaru looked optimistically towards Yamato, a deck of cards already in his hand.

Yamato sighed, rolling up the scroll he was reading, "If we were strictly following the rules, one of us would have to watch Sasuke-kun non-stop, no matter what, without distractions."

Konohamaru nodded energetically.

Yamato stood up and replaced the scroll back onto the shelf before taking a seat on the floor in front of the coffee table.

"Yes!" Konohamaru shouted before taking a place at the coffee table also. "Oh yeah, Sasuke, do you want to play?"

"Hn," Sasuke watched Konohamaru excitedly pass out cards and scoffed at the idea of playing games. He looked at the bottle of pills before standing up and placing them on the dining table and heading towards the bathroom located in his bedroom, "I'm going to take a shower."

Yamato mutely nodded, somewhat distracted by the game, "Uh, no, I don't have that card; go fish."

Sasuke walked through his bedroom and into his bathroom closing the door behind him. He turned on the shower faucet and let the water run until it was warm enough as he undressed and stepped into the hot, relaxing rain of water. He exhaled deeply as the warm water ran down his tired body and woke him up. While he stood there he thought to himself about Kouhei and Ryuu; how he had grown strangely attached to the two and how he had talked to both more than he had with the people he had grown up with. It really wasn't like him to accept people very quickly and even rarer that he talked to people now days. He sighed, depressed, as he thought about how long it had been since he had talked to his best friend. How he felt that he was betraying that friendship by not waiting for Naruto at Konoha's gate. He shut off the water and pushed that thought to the back of his mind to think about at a later date; he was taking care of Ryuu today and didn't want to be disheartened around the little boy. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist as he walked into his bedroom and slipped on a pair of baggy pants. He ruffled his wet, dripping hair and walked back into the living room to find Konohamaru building a tower out of playing cards on the coffee table and Yamato nowhere to be found.

"Where's Yamato?" Sasuke asked blankly as he lay out on the couch, one arm over his eyes to block out the light.

"He said he was tired and wanted to take a nap." The young ANBU mentioned offhandedly carefully placing a card near the top off the stack, his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth.

'That's exactly what I would like to do.' Sasuke thought to himself lazily.

Just as Sasuke was finally starting to doze off in a peaceful slumber, a knock sounded at the door. Sasuke flicked his eyes open and heaved an irritated sigh, rolling his eyes as he stood up. There was another knock and Konohamaru watched Sasuke carefully as he passes the delicate tower of red cards, careful to block the wind from Sasuke's movements.

Sasuke opened the door and asked roughly, "What?"

"Is that how you're supposed to greet your sensei, Sasuke-kun?" Kakashi smiled, his eye forming an upside down U, as he walked into the house uninvited, carrying his precious book. "Yo," he said to Konohamaru as he entered the living room, the same smile on his face and holding up his hand in greeting.

Konohamaru gave a quick greeting, returning back to his tower building as Sasuke shut the door angrily and followed Kakashi inside, "What do you want?"

Kakashi walked over to the couch and made himself comfortable, "I was just talking a walk down Memory Lane and thought I'd visit my long lost student."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted disbelievingly, glaring darkly at his teacher and folding his arms in front of his bare chest.

"Ah, I almost forgot," Kakashi dug through one of his vest pockets, pulling out a scroll and holding it out to Sasuke, "You have a mission tomorrow."

Sasuke took the scroll and began to open it, asking, "With who, what do I have to do?"

"It's a mission with Team Kakashi, of course!" He gave a huge, fake grin, then continued on, "It's a two part mission; first we escort Kouhei-san to his home village and then a.) we heal and bring back any sick and b.) bury the dead villagers."

Sasuke had scanned the scroll over twice while Kakashi had been explaining, "Kouhei requested this mission?"

Kakashi nodded, turning a page in his book.

After a few moments of silence Sasuke frown and looked back up to Kakashi, "What about Ryuu, he can't stay here by himself, and he undoubtedly can't come with us."

Kakashi again nodded, "Iruka will be coming by in the morning to pick him up."

There was a pitter-patter of small feet coming down the hallway and a small yawn escaped Ryuu as he walked into the living room. He noticed the new person and looked to Sasuke questioningly.

"Uh, Ryuu this is my sensei, Kakashi; Kakashi, this is Kouhei's son, Ryuu."

Ryuu looked back to the man, whom he now knew as Sasuke's teacher, who held up a hand in greeting while smiling and reading a strange book with a picture of a man chasing a woman on the front.

"Ohayo," Ryuu said, somewhat tiredly. He looked at the man from head to toe, deciding that he was indeed, a very strange man. "Why are you wearing a mask?" the boy asked sleepily, rubbing at his eyes with the back of his hands.

Kakashi eye-smiled, turning a page in his book, "So that people won't be able to recognize who I am."

Ryuu raised an eyebrow at the man's bizarre logic and looked to Sasuke, "But, won't they still…"

Sasuke shrugged at Ryuu's confusion, rolling up the scroll and placing it in his pants pocket. "Are you hungry?" he asked Ryuu.

"Yes, quite, thank you." Kakashi mentioned lightly.

Sasuke glowered threateningly.

Ryuu nodded.

"I'll heat something up for you." Sasuke stated in a monotone voice, walking into the kitchen and grabbing the leftovers from earlier that day to reheat.

Ryuu walked over to Konohamaru and studied his handy-work. The tower was easily three foot tall and was about the same height he was, when standing up. "Wow," he whispered in awe.

"Ahh, careful!" Konohamaru hurriedly spoke, using his arm to push Ryuu back a little bit, "Don't breathe on it; the air might make it collapse!" He explained in a calmer manner.

Ryuu nodded, eyes wide as he realized what could have happened. He whispered in a tiny voice, trying to make as little air come out as possible, "Sorry!" But Konohamaru had already picked up the next card, slowly and carefully lining it up on top.

Kakashi held out one hand and formed chakra in it; compressing it into a tight ball and spinning it rapidly, creating a strong wind that wildly filled the whole room.

Konohamaru's eyes bulged out in horror as he saw the jutsu Kakashi was forming and the effects it would have on History's Greatest Card Tower, EVER! – the name he had dubbed his masterpiece – and helplessly watched as the wind picked up and threw his cards in every direction.

Kakashi let the chakra dissipate, the winds slowing down dramatically, and continued reading his book innocently.

Ryuu and Konohamaru both looked to the empty table where the card tower once proudly stood; the young ANBU's eyes watered ever so slightly before the room's temperature dropped suddenly and a deadly killing intent spread across the area as Konohamaru menacingly glared at Kakashi.

"You…" he growled vehemently, barely audible.

Kakashi looked up from his book, feigning naivety. "Nani, what happened to your tower, Konohamaru-kun?" The evil sensei said, shrugging it off and returning to his book.

Konohamaru stood up slowly, his head lowered so that his hair covered his eyes. "YOU!" he yelled while pointing an accusing finger at Kakashi and snapping his head up. He then attempted to lunge at the man but was stopped short when he was yanked back by the collar of his shirt. Konohamaru stopped momentarily to look at who had grabbed him.

"Uh-uh-uh," Kakashi's clone said casually while moving his finger back and forth with each syllable, as if talking to a small child, "It's not good to go around starting fights."

The young ANBU growled agitatedly before kicking and punching, trying to get out of the clone's firm grasp. Meanwhile, Ryuu had been watching the events, bug-eyed at the amazing jutsus the two ninja were using.

"Ryuu," Sasuke called, seemingly oblivious – rather, uninterested – in the struggle taking place in the living room, "Your food's ready."

Ryuu nodded, distractedly, reluctantly pulling himself away from the action and taking a seat in front of a steaming bowl of soup and rice.

"Here," Sasuke said dully, holding out his hand with two small white pills in it, "take these before you eat."

Ryuu looked at the pills being held out to him, and then up at Sasuke, then gingerly picked the pills up, "Why?"

"So you don't get sick."

Ryuu nodded quietly, taking the pills before he started eating.

Sasuke put the bottle of pills in his pocket as he walked into the living room and observed the damage that had been done; his blank features quickly became an acute scowl. The energetic ANBU and the Kakashi-clone paused, feeling the threatening stare, and looked towards the angry Sasuke.

"Clean it up…now." Sasuke quietly spoke, irritation clearly hidden in his voice.

"But-" Konohamaru interjected loudly and was cut off when Sasuke narrowed his eyes dangerously.

The duo sighed and dropped their heads, letting go of each other's shirt collars and began to pick up the scattered cards.

"What happened in here?" Yamato asked, appearing next to Sasuke, awakened from his nap due to the ruckus that had been made. He scanned the room seeing Kakashi lounging on the couch, legs propped up on the coffee table and reading, and the younger ANBU and a Kakashi look-alike picking up cards that had been thrown all round the room; the cards had fallen everywhere, from the floor to the shelves of the book case, on the desk and couch, there was even one sticking out of the tuft of grey hair on the real Kakashi's head. He chuckled to himself, imagining what had occurred and looking at Sasuke's sour face.

"Ninja-san," Ryuu asked suddenly, still hungrily eating his food, "What are we going to do today?"

Sasuke turned so he could look at Ryuu, shrugging his shoulders. "Er, what do you want to do today?" he asked slowly, not used to entertaining kids.

"Hmm," Ryuu titled his head to the side in thought, a spoonful of rice stopping midway in its path to his mouth. He stuck the spoonful in his mouth after a moment and then looked to Sasuke, excited and hopeful, "Could you train me to be a ninja?!"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow in question, "I don't think you're well enough to train right now."

Ryuu sighed dejectedly, continuing on with his meal. Sasuke smiled slightly at the sight, although no one noticed.

"Hey, how about you go to the park and play with some of the other kids!" Konohamaru voiced loudly, walking from the living room, the stack of cards in his hands.

Ryuu looked up animatedly to Sasuke, his earlier request forgotten, "Honto?!"

"Hn," he nodded slightly, closing his eyes as a small smile crossed his lips.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"Wow!" Ryuu explained looking at the playground ahead of them as they walked through the park. "We never had a playground in our village; this is so cool!"

Sasuke walked calmly next to a very hyper and energized Ryuu, trailed by Yamato and Konohamaru who were quietly chatting about ANBU duties.

"Ninja-san, can I go ahead?" Ryuu asked, jumping up and down while pointing to the brightly colored playground.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, watching as Ryuu ran to where the other kids were playing and climbed up a ladder to go on the slide.

Sasuke took the last open bench which happened to be intelligently located under a large, shady tree, watching as Ryuu talked to several other kids and then continued, playing follow the leader or a similar game through and obstacle course and across the monkey bars. Sasuke watched Ryuu play around for twenty more minutes before the boy came running up to Sasuke, an enormous grin plastered on his face.

"Ninja-san! Ninja-san, this place is so cool and the people here are really nice!" Ryuu said both his hands on each of Sasuke's knees to steady himself as he hopped up and down.

The stoic man inwardly smiled and nodded watching as the young boy could barely contain himself. He noted that the boy's face was red and sweaty and he was short of breath, "Maybe you should sit and rest for a few minutes, you look tired."

Ryuu, nodded, and sat down on the bench as he was told, still keyed up. "I even made some friends that are my age!" Ryuu exclaimed with exaggerated hand motions. "At home I only had two friends, Gin and Takaki. Takaki is my age but Gin is two years older than us; all the other kids in our village are either babies or old enough to get married."

Sasuke nodded quietly as he listened to the boy's animated words.

"We used to play all the time in the forest and at the river; after school we would always meet up and then wouldn't go home 'till our moms called us for supper, but…" some of Ryuu's excitement disappeared and he looked somewhat downcast. "A few weeks ago, Takaki and Gin got sick, their mothers made them stay inside and sleep all the time; we could play together or even see each other. One day, tousan had me go to the market to get some food for dinner and I saw Takaki's mom, she was a real mess; her hair looked really messy and it looked like she hadn't changed her clothes for ever and her eyes were red and puffy like she had been crying for days. I asked her how Takaki was and if we would be able to play sometime soon, but she started crying really hard and someone escorted her home. I – I don't know what was wrong with her, I just wanted to know about my best friend."

Sasuke looked over to the confused boy whose eyebrows were furrowed. He felt bad for the boy, that he had lost his best friend and didn't even know it; it saddened him that the boy would never get to see his best friend again. It reminded Sasuke of his and Naruto's relationship; how he knew Naruto was out there somewhere, but yet knew that he couldn't find him. He wanted to have a best friend again, any friend, in fact, he just needed someone to talk to and hang out with. Being a stoic, proud Uchiha comes at a price...loneliness. He would gladly take any friendship offered to him, if only to have some sort of companionship again.

He looked over to Ryuu, about to mention something when he noticed that the boy had began to nod off, his head falling down before slightly jerking up. He smiled as watched the boy finally fall into sleeps open arms, his chin resting on his chest.

'He must have been going off adrenaline for the last ten minutes to have fallen asleep that quickly.' Sasuke thought to himself as he stood and scooped Ryuu up off the bench, holding him to his chest with one arm while using the other hand to hold the boy's back and making sure that the boy could rest his head on Sasuke's shoulder.

As Yamato and Konohamaru jumped down from the tree in which they had been sitting, Sasuke whispered to Ryuu so that no one else would be able to hear, "I accept the offer to become your friend, Ryuu."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Kouhei had gone shopping and had bought three new outfits for Ryuu to wear while he would be gone; he would bring back more clothes for himself and Ryuu from his village after the mission. After the quick shopping trip Kouhei had decided to walk around and find somewhere nice to relax, finally deciding on the tallest place in the village with the best view, the Hokage Mountain, right on top of the Yondaime's head; you could see everything from there perfectly, the village houses and businesses, the Hokage Tower itself, Konoha's gates, and, this was the only spot on the Hokage Mountain where the large trees that the Fire Country were famous for didn't block the view of the breath-taking red, orange, yellow, and pink sunset. He sat there, arms crossed and resting on his knees, watching the sunset and thinking whilst Neji stood behind him a few feet.

"Ano, Crane-san, can I ask you something?" Kouhei asked after several minutes of silence.

Behind his mask Neji's raised a single eyebrow at the sudden question. Nonetheless, he nodded, "Sure."

Kouhei turned his body around so he could see Neji, and patted on the surface of the great rock next to him, motioning for Neji to join him and take a seat.

At this Neji's other eyebrow joined the first; he walked toward Kouhei and took a seat, all the while wondering what the man wanted to talk about.

There was silence for several minutes as Kouhei looked towards the descending sun, in deep contemplation, trying to collect his thoughts.

Neji stared at Kouhei at first and then joined him in watching the sun.

"Have you ever…done something and later on, whished that you would have handled that something differently?" Kouhei asked quietly, still gazing off into the distance.

Neji turned to look at the man at the surprising question. "Of course, I'm sure everyone has done something they regret and wish that they could turn back in time to fix it. For me, it was how I used to despise those who had freedom, those that could choose what they wanted to do; I had always hid behind the mask of fate, but…a friend…showed me that life isn't set in stone; that if you try hard enough, you will eventually do what you want to in life." Neji noticed that Kouhei's eyes had glazed over a bit as if remembering a similar time in his own life.

After a time, Kouhei looked down at his hands, brow furrowing slightly, "But, what if, what you did had a big effect on the people around you and one person in particular was forced to carry your burden that shouldn't have even existed in the first place; if it was only because of my actions that this person's life took a turn for the worse? How do you deal with something that effects so many people and yet, you can't undo what you did or even try to fix it?" Kouhei's voice was still soft as he tried to hide his growing emotions.

"Hmm," Neji thought out loud, trying to figure out an answer that would encourage the man and help him move on, "I guess that I, if I were in that situation, would go back to the people that I effected, the one that is carrying my burden especially, and explain to them why you did what you did and then ask for their forgiveness. If they don't accept your apology, then whatever it is would now be there problem as you have asked for forgiveness and tried to resolve the problem to the best of your abilities."

There was silence once more as the sun finally fell beyond view so that the moon could now reign fully over the dark blue sky. Kouhei smiled lightly, looking towards Neji, "Thanks for talking to me about this, it really helped."

Neji smiled too, although it wasn't visible.

"I guess we should head home; I was hoping to say goodnight to Ryuu before he fell asleep and tell him about Iruka-san." Kouhei said, standing up and grabbing the two shopping bags.

Kouhei and Neji arrived at the house twenty minutes later to find Ryuu, Sasuke, and Konohamaru asleep, and Yamato keeping watch outside Sasuke's bedroom door. Kouhei went and tucked in Ryuu even though he had long since been asleep and then went to bed himself as Neji switched out with Konohamaru who took shift sitting in Kouhei and Ryuu's room.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --


	5. Chapter 5

_**Author's Note: **I only have one more chapter that is completely finished! That means that chapter will take longer to post from now on. I'm not bein' mean; I'm just tellin' you the truth. Not only am I out of chapters, but my precious laptop is being sent off to HP customer service. There's something wrong with the motherboard and their going to have to do some serious surgery on it. I might even get a new laptop out of it. We don't know what's wrong, the HP technician said that that they've never had that problem before. (Yay! I've submitted a new problem for HP laptops!) Whenever my laptop is plugged in to the charger it always creates fuzzy lines on my external monitor. I am very sad and lonely without by baby. I miss her already and I just packaged her and sent her away today! Anyways, her's the next chapter of Shinyuu. Sorry to bore you with my life problems and depressions._  
_**Zandahm -** I like NejiNaru scene too! Neji isn't in a lot of stories, so I thought I'd give him a few spotlights. Unfortunately, there wont be very many more.  
**Lady Red 88 - **Mission starts in the very next chapter. There will be short clips that progressively get longer as they get closer to Kouhei's village. I've still got to think of something exciting to happen during the mission.  
**Dimly -** lol. I love Sasuke-kun when he has a gentle side. I had to at least put one scene with his kind and caring side in the story. Hmm, secrets and suspicions... haha, that would've made a good title. More Ryuu-kun in this chapter!_

**Shinyuu: Chapter 5**

**_Words to Know:_**

_Ohayo gozaimasu -_ good morning (formal)

_itai _- ouch

_Urusai _- shut up

_kami _- the Japanese word for the spirits within objects in the Shinto faith, although the word is sometimes translated as "god" or "deity"

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Sasuke woke up from his light, fitful sleep when he heard Kouhei and Neji enter the house. He lay in bed, eyes open and looking at the ceiling for several minutes before throwing the sheet off of him and to the side as he swing his legs over the edge of the bed. He stood up and got dressed in his normal clothes: standard ninja sandals, loose navy blue pants, and a black, long sleeve shirt that clung to his body. He then grabbed his kunai holster and his Konoha hitai-ate, the one Naruto had cut at the valley of the end, and stepped outside his bedroom. He made sure to place the mission scroll in one of his pockets while taking Ryuu's pills out so he could place them on the counter where Kouhei would be able to find them.

Yamato looked up to him from his seat and opened his mouth to form a question but was cut off.

"I want to go to the village gates." Sasuke stated, or rather commanded.

Yamato nodded his head and went onto the bedroom where Neji had just laid down to sleep, waking him and telling him to swap places with Konohamaru so that the young ANBU could accompany him and Sasuke to the gates. Neji followed Yamato out of the bedroom and walked down the hall to Kouhei and Ryuu's room, cursing under his breath at the lack of sleep he would have that night while pulling his shirt down over his head.

Once at the large, double-door gates, Sasuke took his usual place on top of the gate. Yamato joined Sasuke on top of the gate and sat a few feet away while Konohamaru stayed on the ground, slouched against the wall, trying to get some much needed sleep as they would be there all night and through dawn until it was time for Sasuke to get ready for his mission.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Kouhei had woken up bright and early that morning; he had taken a shower, packed the things he would need for the mission and the things Ryuu would need while he stayed with the teacher, Iruka, and was now making a quick breakfast for himself in the kitchen. The three minutes of waiting for the instant Cup-O-Ramen had just ended when there was a knock at the door. Kouhei begrudgingly stood up, his chair scooting back noisily, and walked through the living and to the front door.

"Ohayo gozaimasu!" the man standing in front of Kouhei said, giving a small wave and smiling brightly. The man was about the same height as Kouhei and wore a green vest over a long sleeved, navy blue shirt along with navy blue pans that cut off at mid-shin. The man had dark brown hair, pulled back in a pony-tail, a Konoha hitai-ate covering his forehead, and a long scar that ran across the bridge of his nose.

"Ah!" Kouhei exclaimed too excitedly for so early in the morning, "You must be Iruka-san! My name is Kouhei. Please, come in." Kouhei stepped back so that the man could enter and ushered him into the living room where a masked Neji looked up faintly before returning to the scroll he was currently reading.

"I'm so glad that you're willing to watch Ryuu for a few days, he's not well enough to come with us, and still, he probably isn't emotionally prepared to go back anyways." Kouhei stated with very animated movements.

Iruka smiled embarrassedly while scratching the back of his head, "Ah, it's no problem; of course, I still have to teach at the academy, but he can sit in on the classes and talk to some of the other kids."

Kouhei walked over to his seat at the table and picked up his chop sticks, "Do you mind?"

Iruka shook his head and then took a seat at the table as well.

"I'm really glad that Ryuu can be with other kids his own age." Kouhei mentioned as he stuffed heaping piles of ramen into his mouth, "Back in our village, there were only two kids that were about the same age as Ryuu, but, they both got sick…" he paused looking slightly downcast before perking up again, "At least now Ryuu can make some new friends and won't miss his old ones as much!"

Kouhei quickly finished his breakfast and hurriedly threw the styrofoam cup away as he grabbed Ryuu's bottle of pills from the kitchen counter and walked back over to Iruka, "These are Ryuu's pills; he needs to take them before every meal or else he'll get sick." Kouhei walked into the hall where he had left Ryuu's bag, raising his voice so Iruka would still hear him, "Sometimes he'll want to eat and others he won't, so you can just ask him and he'll tell you if he's up to it." He walked back into the dining room as Iruka slipped the pill into one of his vest pockets and set Ryuu's bag of clothes on the table. "Ryuu's a pretty active and energetic boy, but he wears out very quickly since he's still recovering, and gets tired very easily and quickly."

Kouhei continued to ramble on things that he thought Iruka should know about Ryuu while Iruka patiently listened to the nervous father. Neji, finally hearing enough of Kouhei endless, worried chatter, calmly rolled his scroll up, replacing it on the shelf and walked over to the two men. He was irritated, tired, and had a headache from the lack of sleep, the talking just making the throbbing worse. He gently grabbed Kouhei's shoulders and turned the man so he could look the apprehensive man in the eye.

"Be quiet," Neji said emotionlessly, neither irritation nor annoyance apparent in his words.

Kouhei nodded mutely, his attention now on the masked ANBU.

"He will be fine with Iruka; go wake up Ryuu and bring him in here so that you can leave to report for your mission."

Again, Kouhei nodded and retreated down the hallway.

"Thanks, Neji, I was beginning to wonder if he would ever stop." Iruka mentioned standing up. Even though the ANBU was masked, he could identify one of his students anywhere.

Neji shrugged, "He worries too much when it comes to his son. Besides, he was giving me a headache."

Iruka chuckled a bit at the comment.

A few minutes later, Kouhei was pushing along a half-asleep boy down the hallway. Once they were in the dining room, Kouhei stopped the boy and turned him around taking off the boy's pajamas before walking over to the bag he had set on the table, declaring embarrassedly, "I forgot to leave out a pair of clothes for today." Kouhei pulled the pajamas off of Ryuu's nearly limp body and tucked them away, pulling out tan pants and a red, short sleeve shirt. He kneeled down to the boy's level and began to dress the tired boy like a ragdoll.

Ryuu yawned and rubbed his eyes, "Tousan, why do I have to get up this early? The sun isn't even awake yet; I just wanna go back to sleep."

"I'm leaving on a mission with Sasuke, Sasuka, and Kakashi this morning. We'll be gone for a few days." Kouhei smiled, tugging the wrinkles out of the new red shirt.

Ryuu frowned as if the words he had heard were only making half sense, "Where is Ninja-san?"

"I'm not sure; he's around somewhere though." Kouhei smiled at the boy grabbing his hand and leading him over to Iruka.

"Well, I would introduce you, but I don't think he'll be able to remember anything we say until he actually wakes up; Iruka-san, this is Ryuu."

Iruka smiled warmly, ruffling the boy's unruly hair before mentioning, "Don't worry, I'll take good care of him."

Kouhei smiled cheerfully, "I'm sure he'll have lots of fun." Kouhei bent down again to Ryuu's level, embracing his son in a hug and then placing a kiss on the boy's forehead, "I love you Ryuu. Now, be a good boy for Iruka-san and stay out of trouble; I'll be back in a week, okay?"

Ryuu nodded instinctually, not really comprehending what was being said.

Kouhei chuckled in amusement, knowing that his words were going in one ear and out the other. He gave his son one final hug before standing and giving the boys hand to Iruka.

Iruka accepted the young, heavy-eyed boy's hand and slung Ryuu's bag over his shoulder, making his way to the door and saying a final goodbye to Kouhei and Neji.

Once Iruka had left, Ryuu in tow, Kouhei fell into a chair, sighing deeply.

"He'll be fine; Iruka was my academy teacher and he's really good with kids. I'm sure Ryuu will feel plenty comfortable." Neji commented impassively, shouldering his pack for the mission. "We should head out, the sun will be rising soon and we don't want to be late."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

The sun was barely shining over the horizon when Sakura showed up to the meeting point at Konoha's gates, Sasuke still sitting in his usual spot atop the double doors. Sasuke had, of course, seen Sakura coming before she had even seen him, but made no move to greet her.

"Sasuke!" Sakura yelled several feet away, waving her arm in the air.

Of course, Sasuke ignored the call, not even turning around, and continued to look over the horizon.

Finally, Sakura was right at the base gate and looked up to where Sasuke sat, "You're really early; how long have you been here?"

There was no reply from Sasuke, but Konohamaru walked over from the side of the road and answered, "We've been here since eleven o'clock, LAST NIGHT!" the young ANBU yelled exasperatingly. "Sasuke just HAS to sit up there at every chance he gets." Konohamaru huffed, crossing his arms and pouting although his expression was not seen behind his white mask.

"Now, now, it doesn't matter what Sasuke is doing, our mission is to watch him— whether he's at home or someplace else, it makes no difference." A masked Yamato calmly put in, resting a hand on the pouting ANBU's shoulder.

Sakura opened her mouth to ask another question when Kouhei waved and shouted a greeting from down the road. She dropped the inquiry, waving to Kouhei and Neji instead.

An hour later, Kakashi showed up, reading his precious book and giving a lame excuse about how he had a dream that Sasuke undressed him and tied him to a telephone pole and finally, when he had gotten down, he couldn't find where Sasuke had hidden his clothes. So, when he woke up and got ready, he decided to take a detour so they wouldn't accidentally run into each other. Four kunai were promptly thrown from the top of the gate at the end of the explanation.

The group soon set out, Sasuke leading the way several feet in front of the rest and as silent as ever, Kouhei and Sakura were chatting lightly with the three ANBU, and Kakashi pulled up the rear of the group, reading his perverted novel and giggling to himself every so often.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Iruka led Ryuu to the couch inside of the teacher's lounge and set the boys bag on the floor.

"Ryuu, you can sleep here for a while; I've got to go get my lesson plan for the day ready within the hour before school starts." He told the boy who had already made himself comfortable sprawled out on the couch. "I'll be back in a few hours to check on you, but don't leave the room until then, got it?"

Ryuu nodded as he closed his eyes and fell back to sleep.

Iruka smiled at the boy, laughing a bit, and then left to his classroom, quietly shutting the door on his way out.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

There was a loud ringing sound, the sound of the beginning of school, and Ryuu blinked his bleary eyes awake. He sat up slowly and stretched, simultaneously looking at his surroundings; a small room with a table, pilled with books and papers, many shelves that were overflowing with books and scrolls, filing cabinets that were organized yet teeming with folders, and the green couch he was sitting on. He wondered where he was and how he had even gotten there. He walked towards the only door and cracked it open so he could see what was going on outside and saw a few kids running down the hall in a hurry and many classroom doors slam shut as classes began and teachers started talking. Once the halls were as good as empty he walked out of the room, curiosity overtaking him, and started down the hallway, looking in each room without being seen; it seemed he was in a school as all the rooms were full of children that were listening to teachers speak and taking notes or reading at their desks.

He was amazed at how any people and classrooms there were here. In his village, there had only been one class for all the children – there were only eighteen kids that even went to school.

As Ryuu turned a corner, starting his exploration down a new hall, he ran into someone and fell back on his butt.

"Itai!" the older boy said, likewise sitting on the ground from the collision.

"Masayuki, watch where you're going for once in your life!" A girl said as she walked over to Ryuu, grabbing his elbow and pulling him up to his feet. "Are you alright? Sorry Masayuki knocked you down; he can be really unaware of his surroundings sometimes." With the last sentence she sent a deadly glare towards the boy who was brushing the invisible dirt off of himself while the third member of the team was asking if he was alright.

"Urusai, Kirino! I'm always aware of everything around me; I just let others believe that I'm not aware of my surroundings so that my opponents will underestimate me!" Masayuki shouted, puffing out his chest and putting his hands on his hips.

"Mhmm," Kirino nodded with sarcastic belief, "That's how you know that Sensei is standing behind you, right?"

"Wha?!" Masayuki yelled, spinning around.

Their third teammate, Tamaki, walked over to a door and knocked politely.

"You are late;" the three genin's sensei spoke without emotion, "You were supposed to be in the classroom, ready for class to begin five minutes ago."

"Ah! Thank kami you're here!" A man said as he opened the door Tamaki had knocked on. "I've got another class that I've got to be at, so I'll leave it to you." He spoke to the team's sensei who nodded behind a high collar and sunglasses.

The team walked into the classroom of loud and hyperactive students and made their way to the front as the class slowly grew quiet at the new presence of the genin team.

Ryuu walked into the classroom as well. He noted that the children were a year or two older than himself, but took a seat in the back row so he could see what the ninja were doing at the academy. Now that he had a good view of the whole team, and time to take in their appearance, he noticed that Masayuki was the only boy in the group and was dresses in baggy navy blue pants and a light blue tee shirt; his hitai-ate was tight around his right arm, and he had short brown hair. Kirino, the one who had helped him up, had long, wavy, strawberry colored hair and wore pink shorts with a tight white tank top; her hitai-ate was tied around her waist. The third member of the team, who was named Tamaki, as he found out listening to the group introduce themselves, looked younger than the other three and wore baggy, bright blue pants that tucked into her ninja sandals and a white, long-sleeve shirt that was partly concealed by a sleeveless vest colored crimson. She has short black hair that fell messily around her delicate features and had a katana strapped to her side; her hitai ate was tied traditionally around her forehead. The last member of the team, the sensei, was a very mysterious looking person with a long black shirt that had a high collar that covered his face. A dark green jounin vest was on top of the shirt and then was topped off with a light grey hooded trench coat. The man wore small black sunglasses and a hitai-ate on his forehead; between the high collar, sunglasses, hitai-ate and the hood of the grey trench coat, none of his defining feature were visible. The man, who had called himself Shino, was definitely a creepy, mysterious man.

"Today our team is going to be a substitute for your teacher, who is out sick today." The redhead, Kirino projected to the class who roared excitedly that their teacher would be out for the day.

Masayuki then took the lead, "First we're going to go over your homework, so take out the worksheet from last night and then afterwards we are going to go outside and practice our taijutsu and then some various types of kunai training."

As the class rummaged through their books and bags, Shino made himself comfortable in the teachers chair while Kirino picked up a piece of chalk and started writing answers on the black board. Masayuki still stood at the front of the room, watching all the students and Tamaki stood silently against the wall, barely even noticed.


	6. Chapter 6

**_Author's Note: _**_Aww, no reviews. And its been, what, like two weeks already? *shrugs* Anyways, hope you all like this chapter. I wrote most of it on my phone and had to retype it on my computer. I actually got it done a long time ago but just recently edited it. Its been a busy few weeks what with exams, my dad left for a 45 day trip to India, and my taekwondo belt test._

**Shinyuu: Chapter 6**

_**Words to Know:**_

_Hai_ – yes

_Sensei _– teacher

_Kage_ – shadow

_Otousan_ – father

_Osu_ – roger or let's go (sometimes used as a contraction for onegaishimasu, meaning please or sorry); most of the time it is used in team settings or in military groups

_Ojisan_ - uncle

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Iruka looked at the watch on his wrist as his students pulled out their _'A History of Konohagakure no Sato.'_ He shifted worriedly on his feet while trying to discern the best action.

He had meant to check on Ryuu before school started and bring him in the class room so he could effectively watch both Ryuu and teach his students, but the parent of one of his students had come in complaining about her son's grades. The woman had gone on ranting for fifteen minutes before Iruka had kindly told her that he was late to class and that she should file a complaint and send it to the Hokage.

"Yashiro-kun, come over here for a minute," Iruka finally said as he walked over to his desk and pulled out a small note pad. The boy walked up to the desk and waited for Iruka to continue speaking.

"I need you to go to the teacher's lounge and check on a boy who was sleeping in there. If he's awake, you can bring him back with you, and if he's still asleep, leave him be," Iruka finished as he scrawled something on the paper and then, ripping it off, handed it to the boy.

"Hai, Iruka-sensei!" The boy left, stuffing the note in his pant packet, and walked confidently down the hall and to the teacher's lounge. Every student thought it a privilege to run the teacher's errands and get out of class, and he honored himself to be doing such a thing. He opened the door to the teacher's lounge and took a step in, peering around for the boy his sensei had mentioned. He pursed his lips as he looked over the messy room and well worn couch. He knew Iruka-sensei would not be happy that the boy was not in the room and he didn't really want to relay such information. He spotted a small brown bag at the base of the couch and went over to it. He looked inside, hoping it would give him some clue as to where the kid had gone, but found nothing of interest. He picked up the bag and headed back to his classroom to report in.

"What do you mean there wasn't anyone in the teacher's lounge?!" Iruka half yelled when Yashiro had explained his findings and presented the bag. Iruka held his head, feeling what seemed like the beginning of a headache starting to spread. He sucked in a breath of air and slowly exhaled, calming himself so he could think. Most of the children had stopped their work to either talk or listen to what was going on.

"Alright," Iruka broadcasted, gaining everyone's attention, "I'm putting Yashiro-kun in charge of the class for a little while. I want everyone to read chapter eighteen while I'm gone and I'll be assigning an essay on the stealth techniques when I return, so I will know who was reading and who was fooling around. And, Yashiro will be writing down anyone's name who acts up. Understood?"

"Yes, Iruka-sensei!" the class chimed in unison.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

When Ryuu had followed the class outside, everyone was split into three different groups. Each genin took a group of students, explaining that every fifteen minutes they would rotate until everyone had been through twice. Ryuu had been placed in Masayuki's group.

Masayuki bet down and pulled metal weapons out of a cardboard box and twirled them on his finger. "We're going to practice with kunai," He explained pointing to five training dummies behind him. "There's an even number of people, so everyone pair up and stand in front of one of the bags.

Everyone had quickly stuck to the side of one of their friends, but Ryuu had noticed a boy standing by himself in front of one of the training dummies. He walked over and smiled, excited to be learning how to be a ninja. Each group was given four kunai and Ryuu held the extra three, handling their sharp edges carefully, as the other boy lined up to throw the first kunai. He studied the boy's posture and stance so that he would be able to copy it when his turn came. The boy threw the first kunai and missed the dummy entirely. The boy scowled turning and grabbing another kunai. He spent more time lining up this time, and when he threw his kunai hit in the white ring right outside the red circle.

"Good job!" Ryuu exclaimed, amazed at how close the boy had come to getting a bull's eye.

The boy smiled cheekily as he grabbed another kunai, "Oh yeah, watch this; I'll hit dead center this time."

Ryuu watched the boy line up and throw the kunai, hitting in the center of the red mark just as he had said.

The boy grabbed the last kunai as Ryuu expressed his amazement, "Wow, you're really good; you must have practiced a lot."

The boy shrugged, taking aim as he soaked in the praising. He pulled his arm back, getting ready to throw when Masayuki grabbed his elbow, lowering it slightly so that his had was level with his ear, "There, now it should be easier to aim." The boy launched the kunai into the air, again hitting very close to the red bull-eye mark.

Masayuki ran to pick up the four kunai and handed the first to Ryuu. "Okay, let's see your throw, little man."

Ryuu gulped nervously. He grabbed the kunai and spread his feet apart like he had seen the other boy do. Ryuu pulled back his arm as far as he could.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Masayuki called, taking the kunai from his hand, "First of all, you need to hold the kunai like this, not how you were holding it, and you need to spread your feet more, they're way too close." He tapped the inside if Ryuu's foot with his own until his feet were far enough apart from each other. "It's almost like you've never even held a kunai before," the genin stated as he stepped back again.

"I haven't," Ryuu replied, taking aim and pulling his arm back once more. He released his arm, flinging the kunai forward. A strong thud was heard and Ryuu stared as the dummy in awe. His kunai had hit right on the black line of the red circle.

"That was your first time ever throwing a kunai?!" the academy student yelled.

Ryuu turned around to look at the surprised genin and the stunned academy student. He nodded. The boy looked at him even more aghast and the genin eyed him suspiciously, "How old are you anyways?"

"Five and a half," he said, hoping that the young ninja wouldn't make him leave.

"You must be pretty good then, to have advance to a third year at the age of six. I think you even beat Uchiha Itachi there."

"Uchiha?" Ryuu questioned, thinking he had heard that name before. "Isn't Ninja-san's name Uchiha?"

"Sasuke?" Masayuki asked looking at him strangely.

The name rang a bell in Ryuu's head and he nodded vigorously.

"Sasuke is the only remaining Uchiha, all the others are dead. Itachi is Sasuke's older brother – you know the story."

Ryuu cocked his head and looked at the genin expectantly.

"You've never heard of the Uchiha massacre?" the boy next to him asked.

Ryuu shook his head.

"Long story short, Itachi, Sasuke's older brother, had a blood bath and completely obliterated his whole family. He spared only one person, his younger brother Sasuke; it's pretty sad really. Several years ago Sasuke left the village and killed his brother along with a Konoha ninja named Naruto. He came back to Konoha and is now being punished for deserting his village."

Ryuu looked down, frowning. The Sasuke he knew was nothing like Masayuki had described. Sasuke was kind and caring, although he was a little quiet at times and seemed to stay to himself.

A buzzer went off and each group moved to the next station. Ryuu was now with Tamaki, the small girl with the katana strapped to her hip. "We're going to work on chakra control, so spread out and let's begin," she said flatly in a soft feminine voice.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Iruka rushed through the halls, looking in every classroom window and every empty hallway for Ryuu. As he wound through the whole school and was coming to the end of the last hallway, he started to panic. Ryuu's father, Kouhei, had been extremely worried about his son, and he had gone and lost the boy on the first day – in the first few hours, in fact. A student came running down the hall towards him and towards the main offices. Iruka's teacher side perked up and almost required of him to reprimand the student for running in the halls.

"Hey, no running inside!" he called and he grabbed the boy's arm to stop him.

The boy stopped and explained hurriedly as he caught his breath, "But a little boy collapsed outside; I'm going to get the medics."

Iruka's hopes were revived, "What does the kid look like?"

"Um, he had brown hair and eyes, and is about this high?" he reported, holding his had a little bit above his chin.

"Where is he at?"

"Outside on training ground one, with class 3-B."

Iruka nodded, "Alright, hurry up and get the medics." He turned from the boy and ran towards the exit the boy had come in from. When he came to training ground one he saw the whole class crowded in a circle and looking in on what was happening. He elbowed his way through, finally making it to the clear center, where Ryuu was laying on the ground while two young kunoichi tried to figure out what was wrong with him. A third genin was working on keeping the academy students away, but was having a hard time at it.

"Everyone, take three steps back now and stay there or else you will all be serving detention with me for the rest of the week!" Iruka yelled, commanding immediate obedience.

The whole class backed up without talking back. (Iruka had subbed for their class before – their teacher was often sick – and they had found out quickly that he had a kind and caring side as well as a strict and angry side.) No one spoke a word for fear that they would set the teacher off.

"Shino, what happened?" he asked his former student as he walked up.

Shino held up a finger as a small beetle landed on it. A scowl formed on his face above his dark glasses. "Chakra exhaustion," he stated simply.

"HE was using chakra?" Iruka asked, surprised and more than a little worried.

"It seems he didn't have very much chakra to start with, but his chakra system is very strange," Shino trained off, wondering why the boy's chakra coils were so large and yet not filled with very much chakra. The chakra he did have, though, it reminded him of someone's, although he couldn't quite put a name to it.

Iruka raised a questioning eyebrow at his former student's strange behavior, "What was he doing when he collapsed?"

"Tamaki was having her group mold chakra. I didn't see anything happen until about ten minutes after they had started. That's when he passed out."

Iruka was amazed that Ryuu had even lasted that long. He had been briefed on the boy's sickness and was told that his chakra system had been attacked, leaving him with very little excess chakra, not to mention the fact that he wasn't even a ninja or training to be a ninja.

He walked over to the boy's side and knelt down across from the kunoichi. "How is he?" he asked the girls as he examined the boy for any injuries; Ryuu's skin was pale but his breathing and pulse seemed fairly normal. He released a silent sigh of relief.

"I think he's okay; we have medics on the way, though, just in case," the red headed genin spoke.

A few minutes later, two uniformed medic ninja showed up and affirmed that he had only passed out form chakra exhaustion and would recover after a little bit of rest.

The class got back to training and Iruka explained that he was in charge of the boy and apologized for interrupting their class. He carried Ryuu back to his classroom and lay him down in the corner, laying the boy's head on a small pillow he had picked up from the teacher's lounge. His students stopped their reading and watched their teacher bring the unconscious boy in and lay him on the floor.

"Who is he?" a girl on the front row asked in a loud enough voice so the whole class could hear.

"A boy I am watching this week while his father is out on a mission,"

"Is he a student in the academy?"

Iruka shook his head as he tidied up a few papers on his desk, "No, he's visiting from another village."

"What's wrong with him?" the same girl on the front row asked.

"He's been pretty sick lately and just needs lots of rest."

All the girls coursed with a simultaneous '_aww_.'

"Alright, back to work; we're having a pop quiz on the section you just read, so take out a pencil and a piece of paper."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

School had been let out some time ago. Ryuu-kun was still sleeping off his chakra exhaustion from the mini training session earlier that day, and Iruka had decided to use his spare time to catch up on grading papers. He was seated at his desk, and had been for over an hour now, slowly sifting through tests and quizzes and homework and reports, lethargically marking up the papers with his favorite red pen as he slowly drown from the monotony of it all. He sighed lightly, writing a large _B-_ at the top of a paper and setting it on top of the graded pile before picking up a new paper from the even bigger un-graded stack. He set his pen to work again, marking out incorrect answers, writing the correct answers, circling misspelled words, and such, when he heard the shuffling of cloth and a large, quiet yawn. Iruka paused what he was doing to look over at Ryuu who had sat up stretching and was now looking around the classroom, wondering where he was.

Ryuu finally noticed Iruka looking at him and stood up, walking over to the teacher's side with a small frown marring his face.

"You're finally awake," Iruka stated in a friendly tone while observing that the child looked much better than he had earlier that day.

Ryuu looked up to Iruka with a look of confusion, "Who are you?"

Iruka laughed lightly, "My name's Iruka, I'm the person you're staying with while your dad's on a mission. I came and picked you up from Sasuke's house this morning, but you were probably still too sleepy to remember."

Ryuu's eyes brightened and his mouth opened a bit. He held out a hand and put a fist into it, "Ah, I remember now!"

Iruka smiled and turned back to his work. He wanted to at least get a little more done so he could say that he was able to grade half of his stack of papers. Of course, more papers would be added to that stack the next day, but even the little accomplishments that made him feel productive.

Ryuu edged to the edge of the desk, his chin just barely reaching over the desk's top when standing on his tip toes. He was a short kid for his age, only 99 centimeters tall. "What are you doing?" he asked curiously.

"Grading papers for my class; I'm almost finished for the day," Iruka replied, not pausing in his work.

Ryuu picked up the top paper from the graded stack that lay right in front of him on the desk. He dropped to the heel of his feet and held the paper in front of him. He had been taught by his teacher back in his own village and by some of the older students how to read. His dad had also made a habit of listening to him read from his favorite stories every night. All this to say that Ryuu's reading skill was slightly higher than that of other children that were five – and a half! He slowly began reading aloud the first question, stumbling through words and pausing between every couple of words to sound out the more difficult characters. "In every major ninja village there is a kage. What is the kage of…" Ryuu trailed off, trying to pronounce the long word in his head before saying it out loud. He struggled with it, not ever reading that specific word before.

Iruka absentmindedly voiced the word for Ryuu, knowing the next word from grading 30 or so of the same papers and writing that very question for the test, "Konohagakure."

"Oh," Ryuu voiced before continuing on, undeterred, "…of Konohagakure called? Name the kages and their titles in numerical order." Ryuu paused minutely, finding the scribbled handwriting a bit harder to read than the printed black text. "The kage of Konoha is called the Hokage. Konoha's kages are Senju Hashirama, the First Hokage; Senju Tobirama, the Second Hokage; Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage; Namakaze Minato, the Fourth Hokage; and Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage." Ryuu kept reading, struggling at some points, but sounding out the letters and trudging through. "Name a few defining characteristics of each kage. 千手柱間 Senju Hashirama: The founder of Konoha and an expert in wood manipulation jutsu. 千手扉間 Senju Tobirama: The younger brother of the First and master of water manipulation jutsu. 猿飛ヒルゼン Sarutobi Hiruzan: Also called The Professor, he was a student of the First and Second and a teacher of the Legendary Three Ninja. 波風 ミナト Namakaze Minato: Known as the Yellow Flash, he is best known for his sealing of the Nine-Tailed Fox demon and is a hero of Konoha. 綱手 Tsunade: The current Hokage is part of the Legendary Sannin who is a master of medical ninjutsu and wields supernatural strength."

Ryuu set the paper back on top of the stack he had grabbed it from and looked up to Iruka, a question rolling through his thoughts, "Iruka-san, are you almost finished?"

Iruka nodded placing the finished paper on the organized stack and turning in his chair to look at Ryuu. "I'm finished; what would you like to do?" he asked, knowing the boy wanted something by the expression on his face.

Ryuu looked excited and hopeful, "Do you think we could get something to eat?"

"Sure, what would you like to eat?" Iruka asked, filing the stack of ungraded papers into his bag so that he could work on them at home if time allowed. He picked up Ryuu bag of clothing and flipped off the lights.

"Well," Ryuu replied, following close behind Iruka's footsteps as they left the classroom and walked down the halls. He tilted his head and looked up to the ceiling while he thought, "Ninja-san makes really, really good ramen. I didn't get to eat very much of it, though, because I got sick. Besides, he went with Otousan on a mission today."

Iruka slowed to walk next to Ryuu, "I know of this really great restaurant that specializes in ramen; I'm pretty sure they serve the best ramen in town, even better than Sasuke's."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Kouhei sat down on the impromptu bench made from a dry, dead tree trunk, as around him the ninja, too, relaxed and made themselves comfortable in the small clearing. Neji sat high up in a tree, looking down on the rest and keeping a watch out. Yamato, Konohamaru, Sakura, and Kakashi sat with Kouhei around the small fire they had made – Kakashi was, of course, reading his precious book from the Ichi-Ichi series. Sasuke sat a few feet away against a tree, his eyes closed as he listened to the conversation.

"How much further is it to your village?" Konohamaru asked, his voice just as dramatic as him masked features.

Kouhei smiled. "Not much farther; we should arrive around noon tomorrow," he replied easily.

Sasuke silently wondered how Kouhei could travel a day and a half, non-stop, carrying his son through the harsh weather.

Sakura unintentionally asked Sasuke's question aloud.

Kouhei laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head, "Actually, I traveled for about three days straight. I first went to a nearby hospital in the opposite direction before heading to Konoha."

The group silently marveled at his stamina, determination, and love for his son.

Sasuke stood up with the silence of a well trained ninja and headed to his tent.

Kouhei turned around, the only one to notice Sasuke's movement. Sakura, Konohamaru, Yamato, and Kakashi turned their heads to see what had captured Kouhei's attention. They were surprised to find out that Kouhei had noticed Sasuke's movements when even they, highly trained ninja, had not noticed it.

"Where are you going?" Kouhei asked him.

Sasuke paused as his hand grasped the flap of the tent, "To bed."

"It's not that late; why do you stay up with us for a while longer?" Kouhei questioned.

"I'm tired and sick of listening to you talk."

"Sasuke…" Sakura voiced quietly.

A wide grin split Kouhei's face and he taunted in a childish manner, "Every party has a pooper and that's why we invited you!"

Sasuke grunted and rolled his eyes, crawling into the tent without another word.

Kouhei turned back towards the fire, his face and demeanor solemn as if something heavy weighed on his thoughts.

"Don't take what Sasuke says or does to heart. He's not the most social of people," Sakura comforted, assuming it was Sasuke's words that had caused Kouhei's emotions to do a one eighty.

Kouhei forced a weak smile at her attempt and poked the fire with a small stick.

Sakura was about to speak again, but was interrupted when Kakashi placed a hand on her shoulder, "I think we should all follow Sasuke's example and get to bed. We have another long day ahead of us tomorrow."

Sakura nodded soberly, standing and heading towards the tent she would be sharing with Kakashi and Kouhei.

Kouhei remained seated as Kakashi and Sakura left, whilst Yamato made plans for the ANBU's watch cycle. "Neji, Konohamaru," he addressed, "you two can sleep first, and then, Konohamaru, you will take the next shift until everyone gets up."

"Osu!" Konohamaru shouted, pumping a fist in the air.

Neji nodded dutifully, grateful for the allotted amount of sleep since he had been refused the commodity the last few days.

Both Neji and Konohamaru left to the tent they were sharing with Sasuke while Yamato walked up to Kouhei, who had completely tuned out the world and was lost in thoughts. "You should probably head to bed, too. It wouldn't be a good idea to overwork yourself so soon after recovering from exhaustion."

The man nodded and marched slowly to his tent.

Several hours later, Kouhei still lay on his sleeping mat, wide awake and sleepless. He sat up quietly as he could, trying not to wake his tent mates as he crawled out of the tent. There were no longer any flames dancing in the fire pit, but the burning red smolders still gave our enough heat and red-tinted light to see by. Kouhei tip-toed to his pack next to the bench and bent down, flipping open the top when he heard the trees rustle in front of him. He snapped his head up, startled by the sudden noise. "What are you doing up, Sasuke?"

The ninja took another step forward so he was no longer covered by the shadows of the low-hanging branched tree he had been sitting in. "I could ask the same to you."

Kouhei continued staring at Sasuke, waiting until his question was answered.

Sasuke shrugged and looked away, his words laconic and unemotional, "Couldn't sleep."

Kouhei nodded knowingly and dropped his intent gaze, digging in his pack again. "I've got just the thing; I always do this when I can't get to sleep," he explained, pulling out two white Styrofoam cups. A wide grin came over his face as he held up the two cups in the light and spoke as loudly as he could without disturbing the others, "Ramen!"

Sasuke couldn't help but let a miniscule smirk cross his lips.

Kouhei pulled out a small pot and placed it on the smoldering remains of the fire before emptying his canteen of water into it. As he waited for the water to come to a boil, he started up a conversation. "Ramen is like a cure for everything; I eat it all the time. Ryuu has inherited my love of ramen too, I think, because he's always asking for it. He wants it for every meal, for celebrations, for rewards, for his birthday – his mother and I have trouble making him eat anything except ramen, especially vegetables."

Sasuke snorted his amusement and accepted the cup of instant ramen when the boiling water had been poured in. He gave an appreciative nod and sat down next to Kouhei on the log. Kouhei continued the rather one-sided conversation as they waited the three minutes for the noodles to cook.

Meanwhile, Kakashi lay in bed, waked when Kouhei had left, listening and wondering how a stranger was able to wedge into Sasuke's heart and make him open up in only a few days, when he and Sakura had been trying to do the same thing for years.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"Iruka, what are we going to do tomorrow?" Ryuu asked as he finished eating his dinner. The boy had insisted on having ramen again for diner, even after eating it for snack a few hours earlier at Ichiraku.

"I've got to teach again tomorrow at the academy. I was thinking you could come with me and help out around the class."

Ryuu frowned in thought as he slurped up his last bit of noodles, "Do you teach people how to be ninjas?"

Iruka nodded from the other side of the table.

"Ninja-san said it's very hard to become a ninja," Ryuu commented, no doubt whatsoever in his mind.

Iruka answered with a raised eyebrow, slightly surprised to hear the Sasuke had held some sort of a conversation of his own will, "Sasuke is very right; it takes a lot of work and training to become a respected ninja."

"I'm going to be a ninja someday, the best history has ever seen. Maybe I'll even become a kage someday. I mean, they are the strongest people in the whole village. Ojisan is a kage and he likes his job. Hmm, maybe I'll take his spot once I become a ninja," Ryuu continued, not even noticing when Iruka looked up, surprised to hear that Ryuu's uncle was a kage.

"Wait," Iruka interrupted the boy's musings, "Your uncle's the kage of one of the five great ninja villages?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Shinyuu: Chapter 7**

_**Words to Know:**_

_Ojisan –_ uncle

_Otousan_ – father

Shinobi-iri – ninja stealth and entering methods

Intonjutsu – escaping and concealment

_Hai_ – yes

_Shunshin _– body flicker technique

_Matte_ – wait

_Kage bushin_ – shadow clone

_Arigato_ – thank you

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Ryuu nodded, trying to stifle a yawn, "Gaara-ojisan is the Kazekage of the sand country. Of course, he's not my real uncle, but Otousan takes us to visit him some sometimes. Otousan says that Gaara-ojisan is a very special person to him." Ryuu could hold it in no longer and let loose an exaggerated yawn.

Iruka let the subject drop, noticing how tired Ryuu looked. "All right, time to get ready for bed; go take your bath and then change into your pajamas," Iruka said, picking up both dinner bowls from the table and taking them to the kitchen sink.

"Aww," Ryuu complain, hopping off his chair and following his caretaker into the kitchen. He stopped at the older man's side and brightened slightly, "Can I take a bath in my pajamas?"

"Absolutely not," Iruka replied with a chuckle, baffled as to why the boy would even want to bathe in his pajamas.

"Why not?"

"Because, everything will end up getting wet."

"Well," Ryuu rebutted, using his five year old mind to its fullest, "if everything is wet, doesn't that mean that, in reality, nothing is wet?"

Iruka pause and looked at the sincere boy, "What?"

"You know, like in the ocean; everything is wet, so you don't really consider everything to be wet. Meaning, nothing is wet, it's just normal."

Iruka smiled and looked down to the boy. "Go take your bath and then change into your pajamas afterwards," he said with finality.

The young boy sighed and trudged, defeated, towards the bathroom. Iruka checked in on him a few minutes later, just to make sure the boy hadn't secretly taken his pajamas in with him.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Ryuu sat at Iruka's desk, red ink pen in his hand and a look of concentration plastered across his face. Iruka had asked him to grade a small stack on papers, checking them against the teacher's copy. It was a pretty easy job, but he didn't want to accidentally make a mistake and was focusing his full attention on the task.

Iruka, meanwhile, had written several class assignments on the board that the students were working on dutifully and quietly, and was now writing down the outline and key points of the lecture he would present soon. After most of the students had finished their first assignment of the day, Iruka began the lesson. "Yesterday, we learned and studied shinibi-iri. Therefore, today we will be learning about intonjutsu…" he began speaking, noticing how Ryuu stopped in his work and focused on his words, more so, even, than some of the academy students were.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

True to Kouhei's prediction, the village was within view by noon the next day. It was still several kilometers off, but they could see several farms and the backs of a row of houses. So far, they hadn't seen anyone, but they were still a long ways off and could have easily missed any small movement.

The weather had been beautiful that day, helping their travels. The sun was bright but not overbearing. The few clouds that flew through the skies were large, white, and puffy, just the kind one would prefer when cloud watching. The temperature was warm, heated by the strong rays from the sun, but the cool and refreshing winds that blew that day from behind them kept them cool enough.

As they continued walking, the wind changed directions, now blowing from their front. The group slowed dramatically and finally stopped as Kouhei came to a halt. In contrast to the bright and beautiful day, the winds brought with them the stench of death and rotting flesh. The scent bombarded each of them, foretelling of what they would find. Kouhei stared ahead, his eyes lost in sorrow and despair.

Konohamaru spoke softly, in tune with the downcast aura, "Maybe…there might still be someone..."

Kouhei glanced over to Konohamaru, forcing a small, hopeless smile before he started forward again, leading the group into the carrion.

They walked through the dead and desolate dirt streets, looking in every small store window and down every little alleyway for life. The only living objects they found were a few potted plants and swarms of flies. Kouhei was the gravest out of the group. Kakashi had tucked his book away in respect and no one dare speak a word.

"Let's split up and check for any survivors," Kouhei proposed softly.

Kakashi nodded in agreement, "Yamato and Konohamaru, you two go with Sasuke; Neji, you can accompany Sakura; and I'll go with Kouhei-san. Let's spread out and cover the whole village quickly."

"Hai," everyone besides Sasuke and Kouhei agreed. Sasuke's group and Sakura's group jumped away to a different street. Kouhei had not moved.

Kakashi cleared his throat to pull Kouhei out of his thoughts.

Kouhei nodded slightly, "Let's keep going."

They walked down the road, opening each house and checking inside, greeted each time by an empty house and a dead carcass. They worked their way down the entire street and finally made it to the last two houses. Kouhei stood outside of the one while Kakashi checked in the other. It seemed Kakashi was moving twice as fast as Kouhei was, because by the time the ninja had finished and come over to Kouhei, the man had only just placed his hand on the door handle.

Kakashi watched the man as he hesitated to enter the door, "What's wrong?"

Kouhei inhaled a big breath, holding it for a second before slowly releasing, "This is my house…" He slowly pushed the door open into the one roomed house and anxiously scanned the house: on the right, the kitchen looked just as he had left it with a few dishes in the sink and the bag of groceries he had failed to put away. As he continued sweeping the vicinity with his eyes, he came across the empty table with three empty chairs, a single twin bed in the corner that was surrounded by toys that hadn't been put up, and finally, a double bed where the body of a woman lay, unmoving and decaying.

"I'll leave you alone for a minute," Kakashi voiced uncomfortably as Kouhei walked in, eyes now glued to the form of his deceased wife.

Kouhei showed no sign of hearing the ninja and walked to the side of the bed, kneeling down as his wife's side and letting his fingers trace her cold skin, starting at her chin and working down to her stomach where the other member of his family lay, dead in his mother's womb. Tears slipped from his eyes as he grieved for his lost wife and unborn child.

Kakashi backed away from the entrance of the door, leaning back against the house's wooden siding. Death was something he had regularly been acquainted with; it had brushed paths with the majority of the people he knew, but that didn't make it any easier to see or accept. He waited outside in silence for a long while, and finally peered in around the corner of the door, wondering what was taking Kouhei so long. He frowned as he observed the scene.

Kouhei formed a hand seal and produced two identical clones of himself. They popped into existence right next to him through a cloud of smoke. "One of you needs to report to our supervisor what has happened. Go quickly and do not let yourself be seen."

One of the clones nodded before he preformed a few hand seals and shunshinned away. The other looked to the real Kouhei expectantly for his orders.

"Go and burn the evidence; it wouldn't be good if anyone in our group stumbled upon it."

The clone nodded and shunshinned away to complete his orders.

Kouhei stood and sighed, pulling the blanket that lay over the lower half of his wife's body and draping it over her head.

Kakashi stepped into the house at that moment, his eyes looking skeptically at Kouhei.

The man looked up, his hand lingering at the side of the bed, and forced a weak smile, "There are a few things I would like to get, and then we can continue on."

Kakashi nodded and waited by the door. He watched Kouhei closely the entire time, his mind whirling.

Kouhei reached underneath his bed and pulled out a small wooden box that had a sakura tree engraved in the top and a small, yellowed scroll. He brushed the dust of the top of the box and then slid it, along with the scroll into his pack. He then went over to the small trunk that held all of Ryuu's clothes and grabbed several articles of clothing and a few select toys that lay nearby. Lastly, he opened up a kitchen cupboard reached past the small collection of mis-matched plates and glasses to a large glass jar, filled with coins and bills. Before he joined Kakashi, he grabbed a small picture frame from the bed side table, one of a small but happy family.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"No one here," Konohamaru voiced, joining the other two at the end of the road.

Sasuke grunted.

"This is a useless cause; Kouhei-san knows that we won't find any survivors," Yamato added as they headed towards an adjacent street. The houses were thinning drastically. Instead of the wall to wall houses they had been looking in, these farm houses were scattered far apart, portions of farming land between them.

"Hey, look at that," Konohamaru said suddenly.

Sasuke and Yamato both looked towards the sky, in the direction Konohamaru was pointing.

In the distance, a large cloud of charcoal grey smoke was rising into the clear blue sky. The group shared a look and then sped off in that direction.

When they arrived at the scene, they found a small barn ablaze with red hot flames dancing in its belly. The smoke was even darker now as the fire burned everything that had been inside. Sasuke paused, though, when he noticed the silhouette of a man standing in front of the ablaze structure, staring and watching the building's demise. Sasuke walked closer, aiming to confront the man. The figure turned around suddenly, taking notice of the new arrivals; his face was clouded over by the excess of smoke that escaped the building every second. It was only a split second, it seemed, the man turned back towards the burning building and walked forward.

"Matte!" Sasuke called out, reaching out a hand, as if he would be able to stop the man with just that, but the man stepped into the fire and was claimed by the smoke.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

The team met back up after the whole village had been swept. No survivors had been found, as expected, and everyone's mood was distracted and depressed. They had all experienced the death of someone close to them and the repeated scene of death brought up painful and sometimes raw memories of loved ones, friends, and comrades.

They had all agreed to take the rest of the day off and begin burying the body's the next day. They also voted on making camp a ways away from the village so that they could sleep without the ever present stench of the dead.

Kouhei, Sasuke, Konohamaru, and Neji all left to hunt for some kind of game that they could all eat while the rest – Kakashi, Sakura, and Yamato – made up camp and started a fire. Kakashi waited until the group was far away, out of sight and earshot, before he started speaking, "Have either of you noticed anything strange about Kouhei?"

Both Sakura and Yamato paused at the strange question.

"Not really; what do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"I mean, isn't it strange that Kouhei-san was the only person in the entire village not to get sick? Isn't it strange how he was not only able to travel for three days straight in bad weather, but carried his son the whole time, too, and only received a slight case of exhaustion in return?"

"Well, now that you mention it…" Saukra started, pausing in her work of setting up a tent. She looked up and at her sensei, "Maybe it was just chance that Kouhei didn't get sick. And Kouhei-san loves his son a lot; I'm not really surprised that he could travel like that for the wellbeing of his son." Sakura sounded unsure, even to her own ears. She believed Kouhei was a good man, and didn't want to think of him suspiciously. She hadn't talked to the man that much, except when she had visited Ryuu, but he was the only person Sasuke had opened up to. She didn't want that to be taken away, because if Sasuke would open up to Kouhei, eventually, after a time, Sasuke might open up to her and Kakashi again.

"I just think he's acting a bit suspicious," Kakashi commented, dropping the last log into the stack of wood and pulling out some flint from his vest pocket.

"That can't be the only things that make you distrustful of him. I know that you'd have a good deal of facts and proofs before you would even put someone under suspicion, Senpai. What else makes you think that something about him is off?" Yamato asked once he had finished putting together his tent.

Kakashi struck the flint and sent a bouquet of sparks onto the wood and twigs. "You could call it gut instinct or experience, I suppose; I saw some things that makes me think Kouhei is more than what he's told us."

"What do you mean?" Yamato questioned.

"We visited Kouhei's house and I let him go inside by himself to grieve and say goodbye to his wife. I waited outside, but when I thought he was taking longer than he should have been, I looked inside. Kouhei-san made two kage bushin and told one to report to their 'supervisor' the news, and he told the other to destroy any evidence so that we would not find it. Afterwards, he acted like nothing had happened."

Saukra walked closer, intrigued by the conversation, "According to Tsunade-sama's reports, Kouhei is not a ninja, though."

"Exactly," Kakashi said, standing up and pulling out his Ichi-Ichi book once satisfied with the size of the fire.

"We came across a large barn fire today. There was a person standing in front of it, but when he noticed us, he walked right into the fire. Do you think that was Kouhei's bushin?"

"Possibly," Kakashi replied, "he must have been destroying whatever evidence they had to hide."

"I wonder what Kouhei-san would want to hide from us?" Sakura asked, more to herself than to anyone else.

"I don't know; before we left his house, he gathered a few things from his house and slipped them into his pack. I wouldn't mind the chance to examine them."

"Kouhei-san took his pack with him, though…" Sakura stated.

Kakashi didn't like to see all the evidence against Kouhei and his mysterious behavior. The man was kind and caring and was a good friend to Sasuke and Sakura, and many of the other ninja as well. But the evidence was too out of the ordinary to be swept under the carpet. Something was up and he was not going to just watch as a possible threat to Konoha walked right past them, "Even more a reason to suspect him."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"Ryuu, come eat; supper's ready!" Iruka called, carrying their dinner to the table from the kitchen. He set the bowls down just as Ryuu walked in slowly from the hallway. Iruka pointed to Ryuu's bowl and stated again, "Your food is ready, come and eat."

Ryuu looked up at Iruka for a second before he slowly walked forward and climbed into the chair. He stared at his food in silence, making no move to eat it.

"Ryuu-kun, eat up; it will get cold soon."

"I'm not really hungry, Iruka-sensei" Ryuu replied, avoiding Iruka's eyes.

"You've got to be hungry; you haven't eaten anything all day. You should at least take a couple of bites."

Ryuu nodded very slowly and lifted his hand to the spoon that sat in his bowl. He stirred the soup slowly before lifting it cautiously to his mouth, a small frown marring his features. He slurped it up slowly and set the spoon back in the bowl, swallowing the food animatedly. "Iruka-sensei, I really don't feel good and I don't want to eat anything."

Iruka paused, his spoon halfway to his mouth. He studied Ryuu's expression and posture. The boy had seemed less energetic than the day before, but he had though that he was just tired from all the commotion and newness. He hadn't suspected that the boy hadn't been feeling good all day. He set his spoon down, remembering that Kouhei had mentioned that Ryuu would not be up to eating sometimes. Kouhei hadn't been that worried about his son not eating, so he figured it would be all right if Ryuu didn't eat tonight, as long as his appetite picked back up the next day. "All right, I suppose you don't have to eat if you don't feel well. You can lie down and watch some television if you'd like to."

Ryuu nodded and slid out of his chair, walking to the sofa and flipping on the television. He lay down on the couch and lay his head on one of the couch pillows, uninterestedly watching the television show.

Iruka finished eating and took his bowl to the sink to rinse it out. He stored Ryuu's uneaten food in the refrigerator incase the boy was hungry later that night and walked into the living room to pick up his school bag of papers to grade, but stopped when he noticed Ryuu fast asleep with his mouth open slightly and his arm hanging off the side of the couch. Iruka sighed with a smile and set his bag back down. He picked the blanket from Ryuu's bed and spread it over the boy, gently setting his arm back on the couch next to him. Iruka switched of the unwatched television, letting the boy sleep undisturbed for the rest of the night, and took his bag to the kitchen table to begin grading the day's papers.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

That night, Kakashi lay in bed, pretending to be asleep. He was waiting for Kouhei to fall asleep so that he could search the man's pack, but he man had yet to fall to sleep and kept tossing and turning. Finally, after hours of waiting, Kouhei got up and crawled out of the tent to use the bathroom a little ways away in the woods. Kakashi snatched at his first opportunity and silently reached over to Kouhei's pack. He unbuckled the clasped and flipped the top open, digging inside. He first came across the wooden box and pulled it out. The carved image of the sakura tree blown by the wind was very intricate, but he spared it little attention, instead sliding the lid off and sifting through the contents. On top a few knick knacks such as what he suspected to be the first tooth Ryuu had lost and a golden dragonfly necklace lay, and behind them there were many pictures of Kouhei's family in a farm field, Kouhei wearing farming apparel and Ryuu holding a plow that was twice his size, of the family celebrating Ryuu's birthday at the table, surrounded by friends, and many of Ryuu as he grew up through the years. Kakashi looked past the photos and found the evidence he had been looking for. A stack of small, note sized papers were tied up with a string. The first held an advanced jutsu, one only a high ranking junnin would be able to perform. He flipped through the stack with his thumb, taking care not to bend the papers, and discovered that every page gave information on a high ranking attack or sealing jutsu. He would have continued looking even further, but heard Kouhei's feet against the grass and twigs outside. He hurriedly placed everything back as he had found it in the box and did the same when putting the box back in the pack, making sure not to leave any sign of his snooping. His hand was still inside the pack when Kouhei opened the tent's entrance and crawled through. Kouhei looked up, catching Kakashi in the act and stared at him blankly. Inwardly, he was seething. He couldn't believe Kakashi would go through his stuff, but outwardly he kept his blank and unemotional. He fixed Kakashi with penetrating, severe eyes.

"What are you doing?" Kouhei asked in a whisper, making his voice sound icy cold.

As a ninja, it was easy to come up with a quick lie that was believable, "I heard you talking to Sasuke last night about the ramen. I was looking to see if you happened to have another cup."

Kouhei continued to scrutinize Kakashi from the doorway. After a bit, he relaxed, although his appearance was far from happy. "You could have just asked; I have one more cup," he said, walking to the pack and easily pulling out the cup of ramen, "right here."

Kakashi eye-smiled and acted embarrassed at being caught, "Arigato, Kouhei-san."

Kouhei gave a short, forced smile and lay down, ending the possibility of any further conversation.

Kakashi left the tent and heated up some water to cook his ramen. He didn't really want the ramen, of course, but if he didn't eat it Kouhei would grow suspicious. He settled himself down against a tree as he ate, trying to think of why Kouhei would hide the fact that he's a high ranking ninja and what his reasons for doing so would be.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

It was late at night and the large, white desert moon shone brightly through the windows and into the Kazekage's office. It had been another sleepless night for Gaara. Since having his bijuu removed he had been able to sleep, but some nights, sleep would be as far away as a desert rain. On these nights, like tonight, he would wonder over to his office and work on his ever towering pile of documents that needed to be read and signed. He never bothered turning on the lights, the luminescence of the moon provided sufficient light to see by.

"Gaara," a voiced called out, rough and quiet.

Gaara turned towards the source of the sound, a dark and heavily shadowed corner of the office. His face was unemotional and showed no surprise; he was a master at concealing his emotions.

A figure stepped forth from the darkness, covered in a charcoal grey cloak and hood. The figure stopped just outside of the shadows so that the moonlight was shining on him. He removed his hood, revealing himself to be someone Gaara knew very well.

"Kouhei," Gaara voiced as inwardly he relaxed; his expression was ever the same.

"Gaara," Kouhei spoke again, looking his friend directly in the eyes, "I've got some important news to report."


	8. Chapter 8

_**Author's Note: **__First off, let me just apologize for the long wait. I haven't written in any of my stories for nearly a month or more. I haven't had the urge nor the inspiration to do any writing, let alone sit still and think long enough to come up with something interesting. Not only that, but I was pretty sad after the last chapter was posted. There were over 100 visitors for Chapter 7 in the first 2 day (which is actually a lot for me), but I didn't get one review. Seriously, reviews are like drugs. Once you start getting some, you want more and more. I was a little depressed after a week and still no reviews, so I quit writing for a while because I couldn't get myself in the mood to writing anything worth keeping. *In the meantime, my drawing skills have greatly improved!* So, here's the next chapter, I'll try to keep working on the next chapter and hopefully this one doesn't suck too much._

**Shinyuu: Chapter 8**

_**Words to Know:**_

_Ohayo _– hello

_Otouto _– younger brother

_Jaan _–this Yokahama accent is often used for biker gang members or punk kids (called yankii in Japanese, Yokohama supposedly has many) in manga

_Aniki _– older brother

_Taijutsu_ – unarmed combat, using one's body as the only weapon

_Shurikenjutsu _– a general term describing the traditional Japanese martial arts of throwing shuriken, which are small, hand-held weapons, such as metal spikes, circular plates of metal, or throwing knives

_Hai_ – yes (affirmative)

_Doozo yoroshiku_ – nice to meet you

_Desu_ – almost an equivalent of '_I am_' – example: I'm [Ryuu]. _[Ryuu] desu._ It can also be used when answering where you are from – example: I'm from [America]. _[Amerika] desu._

_Kaasan _– mother; also _Okaasan_

_Konichiwa_ – hello; good afternoon

_Baka_ – idiot/stupid

**-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --**

Kankuro was sitting in a chair, leaning against the wall near Gaara's desk in the Kazekage's office. He had pretty much nothing to do that day and had decided to join Gaara and keep him company while the kage worked on a stack of papers and documents.

Gaara had remained silent all morning, not saying a word besides the customary 'ohayo' to his older brother when he had come into the office. "Kankuro…"

"Hn?" the older man replied.

"I'm going to visit Konoha for a few days," Gaara continued, skimming over the document in front of him and placing his official stamp of approval at the bottom before moving on to the next document.

"What? Why?" Kankuro asked as he lowered all four legs of the chair to the ground, looking towards his otouto.

"I'm taking a vacation; all kages need a break sometimes. Plus, it would be nice to see Temari and our nieces again."

"Who's going to take care of Suna while you're gone? Villages don't run themselves, you know - jaan."

At this Gaara paused in his work and looked up at his aniki, "I was hoping you would for me."

Kankuro groaned, "Gaara, I'm not the type of person who can sit behind a desk all day and get paper cuts - jaan. Can't you find someone else to do it?"

"Like who?" Gaara asked.

"I don't know…maybe Matsuri-chan; she is your student and does pretty much everything you ask her to." Kankuro looked to Gaara for a response.

Gaara stared blankly at his aniki. "Matsuri-chan, really? You honestly think that Matsuri can manage Suna all by herself while I'm gone?"

Kankuro winced slightly and tilted his head in thought, "Maybe not; she would panic the moment something unexpected happened…" Kankuro sighed, "I guess I'm the only one who knows how things run. I'll take care of everything while you're away - jaan."

Gaara nodded, "I trust you."

Kankuro looked back at his brother and smiled, "So when are you going to leave?"

"In a few hours," Gaara answered, turning his attention back to signing the documents, "I had Baki-sensei send a messenger hawk to Konoha this morning to notify them of my arrival," Gaara smiled slightly, "and I've already told the council that you will be taking my place the duration of time I am away."

Kankuro balked, "What?! You told the council I'd be the substitute Kazekage before I even agreed to it?!"

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"All right, class, settle down; lunch-time is over!" Iruka yelled, trying to tame his rowdy class after they had taken their seats and the bell signaled the end of the lunch period.

Ryuu quickly stuffed the last bite of food from his bento into his mouth. A few of the students laughed at him as he looked very much like a chipmunk at the moment. Ryuu hurriedly closed his bento and replaced it in the Iruka's school bag before returning to Iruka's desk and sitting at attention.

The class eventually quieted down and Iruka began to speak, "For the rest of the day, we will be practicing taijutsu and shurikenjutsu outside."

The class roared their approval, cutting Iruka off.

Once they quieted down again, Iruka instructed two of his students to get the shuriken and focus pads from the training supplies room and told the rest to head outside to training ground one.

The students filed out excitedly – every student liked training outside as it meant there wouldn't be another boring lecture to listen to – and Iruka followed with Ryuu behind them.

"Iruka-sensei, can I train too?" Ryuu asked from Iruka's side, looking up with hopeful eyes.

Iruka debated within himself if letting his charge practice would be a good or bad idea. The boy was still trying to recover from his illness, but he had been feeling better the past two days. Iruka finally relented, telling himself that he would just monitor the boy closely.

It didn't take long for the entire class to arrive at training ground one. The students congregated into a big group and began talking among themselves while Iruka stood in front of them and began to instruct them what to do. A few minutes after Iruka had finally gotten his class to quiet down, two more of his students arrived, one carrying a box of shuriken and the other carrying a box of focus pads.

Ryuu stood at the front of the group of students, excitedly listening to the instructions.

"We have exactly thirty students today, so we'll pair up in groups of three to practice our kicks on the practice targets." Iruka explained. His students started whispering, trying to decide who was going to be in their group. "Quiet! We're going to start out with round house kicks – ten each leg – and then we'll work on front kicks, stepping sidekicks, rear leg sidekicks, back kicks, and finally tornado kicks. We practice these same kicks every time, so I shouldn't have to remind you what you're supposed to be doing; your graduating in a few months, so act like it. Once everyone is finished and we've been thoroughly warmed up, get a drink of water and group back here. Understand?"

The students chorused, "Hai, Iruka-sensei," in a bored tone.

Ryuu stared up at the teacher, an overwhelmed look on his face.

Before Iruka dismissed them to start working, he called on a student. "Masaru-kun, I'm going to let Ryuu-kun tag along with you. Since you're the best in the class at taijutsu and shurikenjutsu, you'll have some extra time when you can show Ryuu how to do some of the kicks."

"Hai, sensei, I'll do my best," the boy answered.

Ryuu turned around to try and find who he was supposed to follow, but couldn't find Masaru over the tall heads of the older children. He turned back towards Iruka, about to ask the teacher who he was supposed to be with, but Iruka dismissed the students to start working. The aspiring ninja scattered and hurried to their training posts, yelling and finalizing their groups. Ryuu watched them all go. He was at a loss for what to do; he didn't know which kid was Masaru.

"Hi, you're Ryuu-kun, right?" A voice from behind him asked.

Ryuu turned around and looked up to a boy quite a bit taller than himself. Ryuu nodded while examining the older boy. Masaru wore a light blue, cloth headband that was tied overtop his hair at the side of his head while the ends hung to right past his shoulder. His medium length, light-brown hair lay mostly flat against his face, spiking out at the tips and at a few places over his headband. His navy blue shirt was oversized and Ryuu could see wrappings underneath it, covering the boy's chest. He wore form fitting, deep green pants that were cut off by more wrappings and standard black ninja sandals. Ryuu noticed that the older boy wore some kind of brown leather belt around his waist, and metal-plated, fingerless gloves.

Masaru held out his hand, "I'm Masaru, doozo yoroshiku."

Ryuu smiled and took the older boy's hand, giving it a good, hard shake, "Ryuu desu!"

"Masaru-kun, come over here for a second," Iruka called from several feet away.

Masaru nodded and pointed to a post where only two boys were standing, "We'll be at that post. You can go ahead and go over there and I'll come in just a minute."

Ryuu nodded and walked over to the pointed-out post where one boy was already practicing his kicks and the other was standing silently. The quiet boy had pale skin, short black hair and wore black, nondescript shirt and pants that were covered by a bright red jacket. The boy stared at Ryuu as he approached and wasn't shy about locking eyes. Ryuu shuffled uneasily under the penetrating gaze as he waited for Masaru to come back over.

After pointing out where Ryuu should go, Masaru jogged over to Iruka.

"Ah, Masaru," Iruka voiced, "if Ryuu-kun starts to get worn out, could you have him just sit down and rest for a bit? He's recovering from an illness and I don't want him to overwork himself."

Masaru nodded, "Roger; will do, sensei!"

Iruka smiled and nodded, thanking his student before dismissing him.

Masaru walked over to the post they would be working at. He noticed his friend who was openly staring and Ryuu who looked particularly restless. "Hey, what's wrong Ryuu?" He asked as he stopped next to them.

Ryuu looked up with a wave of relief, finally noticing the older boy's presence. "Kaasan said it's not nice to stare…" Ryuu mumbled out, trying not to let the quiet boy hear him.

Masaru looked to the quiet boy who met his eyes and laughed, "This is my best friend, Ken. He doesn't really talk much, but he likes to watch people. I guess he doesn't have good manners when it comes to staring."

"Oh," Ryuu looked back to Ken and smiled unsurely, holding out a hand in greeting, much like Masaru had earlier, "Konichiwa, Ken-san, my name is Ryuu."

The quiet boy stared at the offered hand. He glanced up at Masaru and then back at Ryuu's hand. Slowly, as if he was unsure of what to do, he reached out his own right hand and clasped Ryuu's smaller hand, giving it one shake before releasing it and letting his arm fall back to his side.

Masaru and Ryuu stepped up to the post after the first boy. Masaru got into a fighting stance and began explaining the roundhouse kick. "Now watch; first you chamber, rotate, and then kick," he explained while going through the motions at an extra slow speed.

Ryuu nodded as he studied the older boy's stance.

"Now here it is at full speed." Masaru returned back to his fighting stance and then, almost too fast for Ryuu to see, kicked the post.

Masaru stepped a little to the side while Ryuu positioned himself into a fighting stance.

"First chamber…" Ryuu said aloud to himself, bringing his knee up as he did so, "rotate and kick…" he finished, turning on the ball of his foot and extending his leg. He wobbled unsteadily and dropped his kicking foot to the ground before he had hit the post to prevent himself from falling.

"Try it a little faster, I think that would help," Masaru advised.

Ryuu nodded and returned to his fighting stance. He chambered, rotated and kicked, swinging his leg as hard as he could and accidentally hitting Masaru right in the gut.

Masaru doubled over, eyes teary and out of breath, clutching his groin with both hands. He groaned and could barely stand to stay on his own two feet.

Ryuu gasped, "Are – are you okay, Masaru-senpai?"

Ken looked on with a bored, emotionless expression while the other boy snickered at Masaru's misfortune.

"I-it's all right…" Masaru breathed out, "That was a really, really good kick. Are you sure that you've never done this before?"

Ryuu nodded, still watching as the older boy tried to stand upright, a pained expression still covering his face.

Masaru shuffled awkwardly several feet away, next to Ken, to avoid being kicked again as Ryuu continued practicing his kicks. Ken looked at him with blank, observant eyes as Masaru leaned on him for support while the other boy continued laughing in the background.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Sakura sighed and stuck the tip of her shovel into the loose ground as she wiped the precipitation off her forehead with the back of her hand, "I never thought that burying people would be so much work."

Kakashi scooped out the last shovel of dirt as Sasuke and Konohamaru lowered the bodies they had carried into the two holes Kakashi and Sakura had made.

Kakashi and Sakura began to pile the extra dirt back inside the holes, on top of the lifeless carcasses as Konohamaru piped up, "How much more do you think we have left?"

Sasuke scanned over the field that was sprinkled with freshly dug up dirt and rocks marking each person's resting place. He answered the young ANBU with an indifferent and emotionless voice, "We're probably only about half way done."

Konohamaru dramatically deflated and grumbled about stupid missions that involved burying a village full of stupid dead people.

Kakashi finished filling his grave first and looked at the members of their group, noting how everyone, even the stoic Sasuke, looked exhausted and worn out. "Why don't we go find Yamato and Kouhei-san and break for lunch?"

Konohamaru, despite his tiredness, pumped a fist into the air, loudly agreeing, Sakura nodded in agreement, and Sasuke silently complied.

Kakashi wiped his dirt-covered hands on the sides of his pants and sighed, closing his eyes for a brief second, "Let's go then. The sooner we find them the longer break we'll have…" Kakashi opened his eyes when he heard Konohamaru's footsteps speedily running away from the group. He spared a glance at Sasuke and Sakura, both of whom were equally surprised by the young ANBU's sudden departure and burst of energy.

As if he were reading their minds, Konohamaru turned around, still running, "If we split up, we'll find them faster!" Konohamaru continued running off towards the village and turned down the closest street, paying no attention to the other members of his team.

"Baka!" Sakura yelled after him, though the ANBU had run far enough away to be out of hearing distance by that time.

Sasuke didn't bother holding back a small smirk. He shook his head slowly at Konohamaru's eagerness, something that strongly reminded him of his blond-haired friend.

Kakashi sighed, continuing what he had been saying earlier, "…but it would be best if we stick together so that once we find Kouhei-san and Yamato we won't have to go looking for everyone else too."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"Alright class, since we've finished our taijutsu training, we are going to move on to shurikenjutsu." Iruka scanned his students as he spoke. "You all are third year students and I shouldn't find anyone playing around with these kunai; we are ninja in training, not immature civilians."

"Hai, Iruka-sensei," the students agreed in a serious yet monotone voice.

Iruka nodded with an easy smile, "Pair back up with the group you had at the beginning of practice and I will hand out the shuriken."

The students nodded before they separated to group in front of the practice targets. Some of the student switched groups, hoping they wouldn't get caught, although Iruka never failed in noticing.

Once their group received the four kunai they were allotted, Masaru instructed Ryuu on how to throw a kunai and the main areas to aim for when attacking an enemy, whether aiming to kill or otherwise.

"I already know how to throw a kunai!" Ryuu triumphed when Masaru had first started teaching him.

Masaru looked at the younger boy with a slightly raised, inquisitive eyebrow while the other two looked on, Ken blank as ever, and the other boy, whose name was Keigo, impatiently waited his turn.

Ryuu nodded and proceeded to explain, "I snuck in with another class and trained with them outside. One of the ninja on the team that was substituting for their teacher showed me how to throw a kunai the right way."

Masaru crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the smaller boy, "All right, let's see it then, since you've already learned it."

Ryuu looked down to his feet as he spread his feet a suitable distance apart, making sure his feet pointed towards his target, and then shifted his gaze up to the practice target. He pulled his arm back carefully, wanting to make sure his elbow was low and his hand was level with his ear, before he released the kunai with as much force as he could, grunting for extra effort. There was a _thwack_ as the metal object imbedded itself into the wooden, human-shaped statue.

Masaru wore a look of approval as he studied the target, "Not too bad, runt." The older boy walked towards the training dummy, motioning for the younger boy to follow.

Ryuu scowled at the name he had been called, but complied, walking up next to the academy student.

"That was a good throw for someone who just learned – at least you were able to hit the target – but, you still need lot more training. Look at where your kunai hit. What can you tell me about it?"

"Uh…" Ryuu wracked his mind as he observed the kunai he had thrown into the stomach area of the practice dummy.

After several minutes, when Ryuu did not supply n answer, Masaru continued, "First off, the area you hit will do no substantial damage to the enemy. It will probably only serve to piss the guy off more. Also, look how deep the kunai is into the wood – barely a centimeter. You need to work on building up your muscles and work on your timing to throw a kunai with the most power possible. As it is, this kunai," he said, pulling on it slightly to remove it from the dummy and handing it back to Ryuu, "would have barely left a scratch."

Ryuu accepted the kunai from Masaru and stared at it as he held it tightly in his hand.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"Yamato-sensei, Kouhei-san, Neji…" Sakura yelled down the nearly deserted street, waving her hand in the air.

The three stopped walking and turned around to see Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke calmly walking down the street towards them.

"Hey guys," Kouhei greeted in a strangely solemn voice.

"What are you doing here? I thought we were still supposed to bring you more bodies." Yamato asked.

Neji raised an eyebrow, "And where's Konohamaru?"

Sakura placed a fist on her hip, "That baka ran off on his own to find you. For some reason he thought it'd be quicker to split up."

Kakashi let his eye travel to a mostly shaded alleyway a few feet in front of them.

"Do you feel them?" Sasuke asked quietly, seeing Kakashi look in the direction he had just moments earlier.

"Ah," he replied, lazily returning back to the group who had yet to notice the chakra signatures of at least a dozen people. Kakashi subtlety reached into his pouch and then flicked a kunai towards the chakra signatures.

The kunai never hit its mark.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Author's Note:**__ I'm pushing through this retarded mental block!! Everyone say it together: _HOORAY!_ I think the story is almost at the half way mark, so I need to start figuring out how to wrap everything up…ANYWAYS, this chapter is like one huge fight scene. In my opinion, it's kinda dull and long, but mailny because I like a lot of bloody, graphic details in my fight scenes. But, I erred from having so much of the gruesomeness in this story (if you like detailed, bloody, stomach wrenching kind of stuff, I would suggest checking out the first couple chapters of Afraid of the Dark. They're intense – more so than this, anyways.) Afraid of the Dark is the new Naruto fanfiction that I'm starting. It will be OC-less (I'm almost certain) and will be focused mainly around Sasuke, Naruto, and the rest of Team 7. (A little more about that story in the below paragraph.)_

_So, I've started a new story, Afraid of the Dark, to get my creative juices flowing once more. I'm really excited about it. I'm hoping to make it angst-y, detailed, bloody, slightly sadistic, and whatever else my heart feels the need to squeeze in there! (Hehe) To make sure I continue working on this story as well, I will be uploading a new chapter of Shinyuu each time before I post a new chapter of Afraid of the Dark (that means, for those of you who are staying up a bit too late and who's minds are currently not functioning) that you are guaranteed—wait…I lost my train of thought. Hmmm… well, I can't seem to remember what I was about to say. *smirks evilly* Now get lost and start reading! (That's an order.)_

_**Big Paja:**__ I love you, I love you, I love you! You brought several things about the story to my attention that need fixing and I am eternally grateful for your advice!  
__**Randa-Chan**__: Thanks a bunch for the encouragement, it really helped. Luckily, the new story that wedged itself into my brain doesn't have any need of OCs! Yay!  
__**Ayesha Samura & limjunfag:**__ Thank you for taking the time to review!_

**Shinyuu: Chapter 9**

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"Don't be so hasty." A filthy, muscular rogue ninja mocked as he caught and twirled the thrown kunai on his index finger.

All of the Konoha ninjas turned to face the man and the twelve other rogue ninjas. Everyone was surprised to find that there had been enemies hiding nearby, while Kakashi and Sasuke looked on with indifference and annoyance, respectively.

Kakashi spared a moment to glance at their employer. He was slightly surprised to find that Kouhei's face displayed recognition before a wave of anger washed over the man's body, eyes narrowed, lips pursed, and hands clenched into fists at his sides. Kakashi turned back to the enemies, wondering why Kouhei would be angry at the ninjas, even as he projected his voice authoritatively, "State your business here."

The rogue ninja, who looked like the leader of the group, smiled smugly. He suddenly stopped spinning the kunai and firmly held on to its grip, pointing it the projectile threateningly straight at Kouhei. Kouhei snarled in response. "Hand over that man and we will gladly be on our way."

Neji and Yamato who were standing right next to Kouhei, instinctively moved in front of their employer, drawing kunais and shifting into a fighting stance.

"I'm sorry," Sakura decided to speak up, getting into her own defensive position, "but I'm afraid Kouhei-san will be staying with us."

The rogue ninja's smile seemed to only grow larger. He turned slightly to the man standing directly behind him, revealing to the Konoha ninja, their captured comrade, Konohamaru. The young ANBU was roughly pushed forward, causing him to stumble and giving the rouge leader enough time to position his kunai in across Konohamaru's neck. The boy froze like a block of stone as soon as the cold metal touched his skin and his eyes widened slightly (his ANBU mask had been lost sometime in the fight when he had been overwhelmed and taken hostage). "I'm asking you to kindly reconsider." The rogue ninja smiled toothily.

Meanwhile, Kouhei was struggling through a fierce inward battle. His anger and hate at the ninja that had suddenly appeared was boiling through his blood and he could barely keep himself from lunging forward and throttling the poor excuse for a man.

"What do you want with Kouhei-san?" Kakashi asked neutrally. He needed to buy more time to think over why the rogue wanted Kouhei, why Kouhei would be so angry at the rogue ninja, and how to get Konohamaru back with as little conflict and casualties as possible.

The ninja moved into a more relaxed, yet at the same time threatening, posture, still keeping hold on Konohamaru. "Our leader has ordered us to capture and bring back Kouhei, the man whom, I've heard, has requested this mission. We have been looking for him for a long time now, you see. We had just received information that Kouhei," he nodded towards the man with his chin, "had moved to this very village. By the time we had finally arrived to the village, a fatal sickness had claimed everyone's lives except for two people, Kouhei, who had not been at all effected by the illness, and his son whom was near death. It took some time, but we managed to track Kouhei to Konoha and waited patiently with open eyes and ears for the time when we would strike. You see, we've have been after Kouhei for quite some time and are getting tired of this cat and mouse game, so if you would, send Kouhei in exchange for your comrade, and no one will get hurt." He added a disturbingly large grin at the end of his soliloquy.

The Konoha ninja were silent in shock that these rogue ninja had been after Kouhei for a long time and that Kouhei, somehow, had been able to slip through their grasp each time they tried to capture him. They also silently wondered what Kouhei could have done or been accused of doing, as Sasuke and Konohamaru couldn't imagine Kouhei doing anything bad. Kakashi, Sakura, Neji, and Yamato had their doubts even as their curiosity grew still stronger at who and what Kouhei really was.

"Guys, don't worry about me! As Konoha shinobi, we have a duty to protect Kouhei-san! Forget me and get away!" Konohamaru yelled to his comrades. Kouhei had grown to be one of his friends in the short time they had known each other, one of his important people. And as future hokage, he was willing to give up his life to protect those important to him. This was something he held fast to. It had been Naruto's way of life and it was his way of life.

The rogue ninja growled and clamped his hand over Konohamaru's mouth. He and the rest of his group were growing impatient, "I won't ask again, hand over Kouhei or else we _will_ kill your comrade. We are being paid a large sum of money to capture Kouhei, money that we all desperately need. We're just trying to get our job done so we can return to our families, whom we have not seen in many years." The other rogue ninja added in their agreement.

"Never…" Kouhei growled out. His voice was dangerously low, as his head hung down, fists shaking in rage. His voice was barely heard, but was distinctly animalistic and feral. Kouhei snapped his head up towards the rogue. His eyes expressed so much emotion that they seemed to glow eerily red and it almost sounded as if he were growling deep in the back of his throat. "I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!" Kouhei finally shouted out at the top of his lungs, releasing only a sliver of all the pent up emotion he had bottled inside of him.

Konohamaru took the opportunity to bite his captor as hard as he could, effectively distracting the man and making him bleed.

"Ow, damn, you brat!" The rogue yelled, never releasing Konohamaru. Before the boy could cause any more trouble, he hit a pressure point in the back of the young ANBU's neck and caused him to lose consciousness.

Sasuke took the opportune moment of distraction Konohamaru had given him and raced forward, simultaneously drawing his katana from its sheath on his back. Before he had even made it half way, the rogue ninja had taken control of the situation again and had held the kunai even closer to Konohamaru's neck, creating a small incision and drawing blood. "Don't take another step…" He left the threat open-ended.

Sakura ran forward with a burst of speed, drawing back her fist to deliver a chakra enhanced punch.

The ninja grinned evilly with a half shrug, "I warned you…" He then slashed his prisoner straight through his neck, effectively cutting off major blood vessels and cutting open his trachea.

Everyone stopped in shock. For their comrade, Konohamaru, was no longer the aim of the rogue ninja's threats. Instead, a man garbed entirely in black with a tight, black mask that covered all of his features except for his eyes, stood in Konohamaru's place. It was hard to tell, but due to the slight wrinkles in the fabric of the mask, they could all tell the man, whom had just had his neck slit, was smiling out at all of them. A few seconds later the person poofed out of existence, leaving them all in even more shock. Kakashi made sure to glance at their enemy's expression to make sure that they weren't playing some kind of trick. In fact, everyone was truly shocked by what had happened in the last few seconds except for one person. Kouhei was surprised, but not nearly as much as he should be, seeing as some strange man had shown up in Konohamaru's place barely half a second before being killed and poofing out of existence. It was most troubling to see that Kouhei was less surprised by the occurrences than all the other ninjas present.

"Substitution and shadow clone?" Neji voiced uncertainly. He had seen the sudden surge of chakra with his activated byakugan and had seen the chakra flowing through the replacement's body. But still, he found it hard to believe.

Yamato searched around for their, now, missing comrade (he was particularly worried as he was supposed to be looking out for his young charge while the boy grew accustomed to his new position, and the boy's death would fall on his shoulders). Eventually, he found the young ANBU on a rooftop several houses down. At the moment, Konohamaru was being lowered to the ground by yet another of the unidentified, masked ninja. The ninja straightened up and looked down towards all the other ninja who had also discovered where Konohamaru had been taken.

Suddenly, the ninja vanished, reappearing in less than a second in front of the leader of the rogue ninja and delivering a punch to the man's stomach that rivaled or even surpassed Saukra's strength. Everyone stared as the leader flew back and crashed through a wall, landing in a heap somewhere inside. The unidentified ninja turns slightly and stared at the Konoha ninja, sending them an untold message, before running forward several feet and then disappearing, only to reappear in the middle of the caught-off-guard rogue.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Ryuu picked up another Kunai from the small pile at his feet and, after consciously moving into the proper stance, threw the kunai as hard as he could towards the wooden practice target. He grunted at the effort while he constantly bit down on his lower lip in determination. He had continued working with the older academy students to throw his kunai better, and had discovered many ways he could fix his throw. Learning ninja skills was much harder than he thought, but he was determined to be the best ninja the world had ever seen, so he pushed himself to keep going and continue throwing kunai, even when the older kids moved on to practice other skills like katas and moving kicks (which really didn't take entirely that long), and then began sparring against each other. His eyes gazed distractedly towards the older boy Masaru and his friend, Ken, who sat among their peers on the grass watching two students spar. Masaru glanced up from the fight, feeling eyes lingering on him, and locked eyes with him. Ryuu blushed at being caught staring, but Masaru simply smiled and gave a small wave. Ken noticed this too and looked towards Ryuu. Ryuu gave the best smile back that he could manage (which wasn't much considering how tired he was) before turning back to his practice target and taking aim. His head pounded and he felt a twinge of dizziness, but he forced his numb arm to fling the kunai towards the target. It hit, but just barely, the outermost black ring.

"It looks like you're getting worn out." Masaru observed from beside him.

Ryuu hadn't noticed him coming over. He swore to himself that he would train harder and be more aware of his surroundings. Ryuu glanced over to the older boy before bending down and picking up another kunai. "I'm fine, Masaru-sempai, I need to keep working on this if I'm ever going to be a good ninja." He pulled his arm back and started to throw the kunai, but Masaru had firmly grabbed on to his wrist, preventing the throw.

"I think you should take a break; sometimes, if you overwork yourself training, you can do more harm to yourself than you can do good."

Ryuu glared half-heartedly glared at the older boy, but nodded slowly in acceptance.

Masaru released Ryuu's wrist, as he observed how red Ryuu's face was and that the boy was sweating profusely, even in the pleasant – not overly warm – spring air. Suddenly, Ryuu's legs gave out beneath him and he closed his eyes, dropping into unconsciousness, his body demanding rest from him. Masaru quickly caught Ryuu under the arms before he could fall much. He smiled softly at the boy's determined spirit but felt bad that he had let the aspiring ninja work himself far past his limit. He carefully picked up his young charge and walked in the direction of his class towards the side of the school building that would provide a nice shade for the boy. Iruka worriedly caught Masaru's eye, and Masaru nodded to the unasked question, telling his teacher that Ryuu was fine, if only exhausted.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

The unidentified ninja began attacking the rogue ninja, using only taijutsu and the singular kunai, which seemed like he had pulled out of thin air. The rogues had gotten over their shock at the surprise attack and were now overwhelming the mysterious man in an eleven-to-one fight, although no one could manage a hit on him.

Sasuke nodded to himself in self determination before he continued running forward, stopped earlier by the rogue leader's threat, and engaged two of the ninja in a fight. At the rate things were going, if he hadn't jumped into the chaos, he was sure the mysterious ninja would have quickly been taken down. And the other Konoha ninja didn't seem like they were about to do anything too terribly soon. Sasuke was determined to beat the hell out of the rogues, if only to prevent them from taking his newly acquired –did he dare think the word? Yes – his new friend.

Kakashi cut himself off from yelling for his wayward student to come back. He wasn't sure what to do at the moment, but running, head-first, into the throng of battle, was not at the top of the list. _That's something I would have expected Naruto to do, not Uchiha Sasuke._ He turned back to his teammates, whom he found starting back at him, waiting for instruction. Easily slipping into the role of leader, he shouted out commands, "Sakura, go to Konohamaru and make sure he's not injured as well as keep guard over him so he cannot be taken hostage a second time." Sakura gave a mock salute before turning and running down the street towards the roof Konohamaru had been moved to. "Yamato, stay here and guard Kouhei-san, in case one of the ninja are able to slip past us." Yamato nodded and slid deeper into his defensive stance. "Neji," Kakashi address, turning and making eye contact with the young man as he spoke, "you'll be coming with me." They spared no time in rushing into the fight and claiming several opponents of their own. Even with Kakashi and Neji fighting two rogues each, and Sasuke fighting two after he had already felled one, that still left five of the ninja to battle against the nameless ninja. Even with such odds, Kakashi noticed out of the corner of his eye after delivered a swift and solid kick to one of his opponent's head, the anonymous ninja had yet to use any jutsu, or any technique, really, that would give a clue as to who the man was or how strong he really was.

Sasuke was getting slightly worried –opposite to what most thought, Uchiha were capable of getting worried or anxious as well as any other emotion known to man – they were just better at concealing it than most. Even though he, Kakashi, and Neji had joined the fight, most of the ninja still ganged up on the mysterious man. He shot a glance towards Kakashi, quickly making eye contact, before he sent a powerful three-sixty back kick into his opponent's stomach, sending him backwards into another rogue and towards Kakashi who effectively drew their attention and engaged them in fighting. Sasuke sped to the mysterious ninja's side, easily dodging each rogue with his activated sharingan, and drew several of the rogues into a taijutsu fight while also covering the unnamed ninja's back, hoping the same would be done for him. Sasuke could see the quick flash of a smile behind the man's mask and nodded in return. They fought for some time, each using only taijutsu and their respective weapons, but clearly they weren't making much progress. Not only that, but the leader had emerged from the broken wall of a house and had started fighting against Neji and Kakashi. Clearly the man was stronger than all the other rogue, because he was giving both Kakashi and Neji a run for their money.

Sasuke spun around one hundred and eighty degrees, holding his sword in a reverse grip, swinging his sword at full force and clashing against his opponent's kunai. They were at a standstill for several minutes, neither willing to give up space, before they both jumped back a couple feet, running towards each other at full speed. They engaged again in a deadly dance. The unnamed ninja suddenly showed up at Sasuke's side and caught a kunai that had accurately been aimed at the Uchiha's blind spot. Sasuke, never one to miss an opportunity, used the moment of distraction to gouge his sword all the way through his opponent's neck. Another rogue quickly took the previous' place. Sasuke, growing frustrated with the slow progress, sent a burst of lightening down the length of his katana before swing it towards his opponent. The rogue blocked, but the electricity travelled through the metal of his weapon and sent a flash of numbness across his entire right arm and shoulder. Another rogue cover for his injured comrade and took a defensive stance against the Uchiha. Sasuke attacked with all his speed, but each time he swung, the rogue would be just fast enough to dodge the hit. Sasuke narrowed his eyes in agitation, and devised a suitable plan. He pushed his opponent backwards, to where the unidentified ninja had moved to, until his opponent was within reach of the mysterious ninja, who, upon realizing what Sasuke was trying to do, struck the unsuspecting rogue from the back.

"This isn't working," Sasuke ground out as he blocked an incoming punch with his arm, "There are too many of them and not enough of us."

The unnamed ninja nodded in agreement, but didn't say anything besides.

"I think I've got a plan…follow my lead." Sasuke spoke again.

The man nodded and followed the Uchiha, jumping back a distance from the rogue.

Sasuke preformed a few quick seals before holding his arms forward, shooting a plethora of snakes from his sleeve. The snakes raced towards the four remaining ninja they were fighting and wrapped around the grown men, effectively restraining them.

Almost simultaneously, as if he had predicted what Sasuke was doing, the unnamed ninja flew into a series of his own seals, calling out in a voice that somehow sounded slightly familiar, "Fire Release: Grand Fireball Technique!"

The rogue screamed in agonizing pain as they were slowly burned alive. After the jutsu ended, Sasuke and the unnamed man looked to find four dead enemies.

About the same time, Kakashi and Neji seemed to finish up their last opponent. The two jumped over to Sasuke's side, willing to fight the unidentified man if the need arose. The three stared the black-clad ninja down, Sasuke's glare a bit more forgiving than the other's.

Although Kakashi had a completely calm exterior with hands in his pockets, he focused all of his attention of the ninja in front of him. In his mind, he knew that if the unnamed ninja had been able to fight five-to-one using only basic taijutsu, that he would easily be a worthy opponent against the three of them, especially being slightly worn out after their battles. "Who are you?" Kakashi asked in a bland, monotone voice.

The man smiled behind his mask, eyes curving upward before they shifted slightly to the side of Kakashi, growing suddenly somber. Before any of them could react, the unnamed ninja disappeared from in front of them, only to reappear behind Kakashi. The three of them turned to find the man impaled by a kunai that had been aimed at Kakashi's blind spot. The man turned his head towards them with an oddly somber look, before he popped out of existence with a cloud of white smoke.

"A shadow clone…" Sasuke states obviously, bewildered by the fact that he had been fighting alongside a clone.

Neji jumped over to the man that had thrown the kunai and closed the tenketsu surrounding the man's heart, killing him instantly.

Kouhei's worried yell brought Kakashi out of his confused trance. By the end of the fight, he was left with more questions than he had before. He watched speculatively as Kouhei nervously pointed out a bloody scratched on Sasuke's shoulder and demands that Sasuke let Sakura heal him up. Indeed there were many questions yet to be answered, more questions than he was comfortable with.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note:**I just got back from a trip to New York (which I won through the Doodle 4 Google contest if you want to know about it, go to doodle4google (dot) com. Click on the regional winners and mine will be called 'Free to Create' in grades 10-12 by Elizabeth Harman) which was utterly exhausting. I took my belt test for high orange belt in tae kwon do a couple Saturdays ago and passed (hooray!) and last weekend I drove/flew to Florida (to the city where I used to live, & my cousin and grandparents still do) for my cousin's high school graduation, which was a 5 hour trip both ways. It took a while – I didn't even start writing this until this week—but I finally managed to sit still and write another chapter. I'm starting to wonder if I got ADHD or something….jk.

Edit 6/27/09: Cleaned up a little and removed unneeded section.

**Shinyuu: Chapter 10**

"Tsunade-sama, Pakkun has a message from Kakashi's team." Shizune reported, holding open the office door for the nin-dog to enter.

The little pug walked in casually, easily hopping up onto Tsunade's desk and waiting to be addressed.

"Hello, Pakkun, it's been a while, hasn't it?" Tsunade asked amiably.

Pakkun nodded, and spoke past the scroll held in his mouth, "Since last time."

Tsunade accepted the scroll and opened it as Pakkun reported, "Kakashi said that this scroll is very important and that he expects you to be ready and waiting when they arrive back in three days."

Tsunade nodded to the dog and began reading the scroll.

_Hokage-sama,_

_I have reason to believe that Kouhei is a possible threat to Konoha. I won't go into detain in case this scroll is intercepted, but rest assured I have been watching him closely for signs. There are many things I found out that help to prove my hypothesis. Also, a group of twelve rogue jonin attacked us today, demanding we give them Kouhei in exchange for Konohamaru. During the battle, he acted…strange. Also, there was a mysterious masked man who wore entirely black that saved Konohamaru and helped us defeat each of the rogue. At the end of the battle, he took a kunai for me and we discovered that he was actually a shadow clone._

_We will keep a close eye on Kouhei until we reach Konoha's gate. I then ask that you detain Kouhei by any means necessary for interrogation and questioning. I have no doubt that he is hiding something, its just the matter of 'what' exactly he's hiding. You may feel the need to keep an eye on Ryuu-kun as well. I find it hard to believe that Kouhei would use his son as a spy while he is gone, but I would not put it past him._

_Hatake Kakashi_

Tsunade frowned and closed the scroll. The information Kakashi had sent was slightly unnerving. The last thing Konoha needed was another war. She decided to stay on the safe side and take heed of Kakashi's warning. She dismissed Pakkun and called one of her most talented ANBU guards. "Falcon, you may remove your mask for the time being." She instructed.

The ANBU took off his mask and held it as his side, looking at Tsunade curiously.

"I would like you to keep an eye Ryuu until his father gets back. Iruka will probably bring Ryuu-kun to the tower today while he helps with mission assignments. I may have you, without your ANBU uniform, take Ryuu somewhere to keep him entertain and to see how he acts when he thinks no one is watching. Just keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't do anything suspicious.

"Of course, Hokage-sama." The ANBU replied, reattaching his mask before disappearing.

Tsunade sighed in annoyance. Oh, how she wondered what ever made her take the troublesome job of hokage. Of course, nothing short of one Uzumaki Naruto could have done it. Now if only he would have stayed to see her through and take her job from her. A sad smile and another sigh escaped her pink lips before she reached into the hidden compartment in her desk – the one Shizune hadn't found yet – and pulled out a nice, refreshing bottle of sake.

Ryuu stared up at the large red and white tower they were entering. It was Sunday, the only day of the week were there was no school. He thought that he would be able to sleep in for once, but no, Iruka had to work at the mission office on Sunday mornings. And what's worse – he worked there all day from dawn until dust. Ryuu was sure he would get bored. He had grabbed a book to read, _Chakra and Manipulation_, but he suspected he could memorize the whole book by the time Iruka would get off. He sighed inwardly, "How long are we going to be here, Iruka-sensei? Just reading books won't automatically make me a ninja – I need more training time than this!"

Iruka inwardly laughed at Ryuu's pout. "Tomorrow after school I'll help you with your taijutsu to make it up to you, okay?"

Ryuu frowned, as if debating, but his face soon faltered into a reluctant smile, "Alright."

Iruka led Ryuu to the mission office and let Ryuu sit on a chair next to him as he, the hokage, and two other chunnin distributed missions to each team that came in.

Ryuu opened his book and began studying up on chakra and the ways it could be manipulated. After all, he had decided he would become the best ninja and eventually become a kage of either Sand, like his uncle, or of Konoha, the place where he was making new friends.

Ryuu tried, he tried very hard, but studying for three hours straight was the most difficult thing he had ever attempted – except maybe throwing kunai or practicing kicking until he passed out. Still, he could hardly make himself sit still, let alone concentrate enough to read or learn anything useful. Plus, Iruka kept sending him death glares so he wouldn't start acting up. Finally, he slammed the book closed and let his head fall to the wooden table with a resounding _thud_. "Iruka-sensei…" he whined pathetically, looking to his caretaker. "I don't think I can sit still a minute longer."

"Sorry," Iruka replied, really meaning it, "now is about the time when most of the teams come in for their assignments, I can't leave just yet. I have a lunch break in another two hours, if you can wait just a while longer."

Ryuu groaned loudly.

Tsunade let a smile come to her face at the boy's expense, "How about I call a favor and have someone take you out – at least to just stretch your legs?"

Ryuu immediately sat up, his eyes glowing.

"Falcon," Tsunade called, summoning her best ANBU in front of them, "Would you go get Sai. I need him to look after Ryuu-kun for a little while."

"Of course, Tsunade-sama." Falcon bowed before disappearing to do as he was told, or rather, change out of his ANBU attire and report in to watch Ryuu.

A few minutes later, Sai walked into the mission office, bowing slightly to the Hokage.

"Ah, Sai, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind letting Ryuu tag along with you today while Iruka is here working with me."

"I would be happy to, Hokage-sama." Sai replied, turning and smiling at Ryuu, who smiled even bigger.

He was somewhat nervous to join a complete stranger, but he was bored and antsy. Plus, the Hokage, of any village, would always look out for each and every villager, even the visiting ones. He picked up his book and hopped off the chair, half running, half speed-walking to Sai's side.

Sai nodded once to the Hokage, and again to the chunnin seated in the room, before he turned and left the room. Ryuu quickly followed, an energetic skip in his step. They walked through the Hokage Tower in near silence, the only sound coming from the small pad of Ryuu's feet as Sai's were stealthy and silent by nature.

It was too quiet, he had been sitting still for too long, and he had _way too_ much energy to not talk. "Sai-san, you're a ninja too, right?"

Sai smiled and nodded.

"What rank are you? Are you like a super strong ninja that does all the Hokage's hardest missions?" Ryuu asked excitedly, nearly dropping his book in the process.

Sai inwardly laughed nervously, but kept a smile on his face nonetheless. The only way the boy could have come any closer to his rank would be to add that he worked undercover and preformed the exceptionally hard or dangerous missions as a member of ANBU. "Well, actually, I just became a jonin."

"Wow," Ryuu admired, "So you are really strong! Someday, I'm going to be strong too – I'll be a kage."

Sai's smile faltered for a beat. The young boy's words were almost exactly what his teammate used to claim. He had only joined Team Kakashi to fill-in for Sasuke, but he had formed a bond with Sakura, Naruto, and eventually – to a much lesser extent – Sasuke. Although he didn't readily show it, he missed his outgoing, loud-mouthed teammate as much as the next guy.

"Can we go to the training grounds?" Ryuu suddenly asked exuberantly, breaking Sai out of his thoughts.

Sai pause, glancing up at the bright blue sky they had just come into, and gauging what time it was based on the sun's position. "It's almost lunch time. We should eat first so you will have more energy and then I can take you training."

Ryuu shrugged happily, noting that he was starting to get a bit hungry. "I'm reading this book about chakra and how to use it, but it won't make me a ninja like real life training will." Ryuu commented, holding the book up so the ninja could easily read the title.

Sai took the book, looked over the title and thumbed through it before giving an approving nod. "This is a very informative book. Although training is very important, there are still many things that can only be learned through books. Personally, I think reading is just as important as training." He was interrupted from giving his suggestion of reading material at the high pitched yell of someone behind them and to their right.

"Hey, Sai!"

The two stopped walking and turned to see who had called, to find a woman with long blond hair and purple ninja-style clothing on, standing in front of Yakiniku BBQ and waving her arm at them.

Sai walked up to the girl and Ryuu followed as she began talking, "We saw you walk by; what are you up to today?"

Sai smiled, "The Hokage asked me to take care of Ryuu today while his guardian, Iruka-san, is working in the mission office. We were just going to find some place to eat and then do some training."

"Really? Why don't you join us, then? We just started eating." Ino explained, grabbing on to Sai's arm and pulling him into the restaurant before he could reply either way. Ryuu jogged up beside his temporary caretaker and found himself facing a good sized group of people he had never met before. He fidgeted a bit at Sai's side as a bit of his shyness and nervousness – from his mother's side, his dad would always tell him – tried to creep over him. It passed quickly as his eyes took the sight of a _very_ large man, practically stuffing his face with meat and another man who looked exhausted and was juggling and trying to feed three babies all at the same time.

"Guy's, Sai and, um…" Ino began introducing to her teammates, but realized she didn't know the young boy's name.

"Ryuu," he replied quickly, noticing how neither males paused to glance in his direction.

"Right, Ryuu – are going to eat with us."

The big man paused in his meal to look up and smile, giving a small bow with his round head, while the other merely glanced over in his direction.

Ryuu stared at the odd group as Ino called over a waiter and ordered two more meals (without even asking what they wanted!). Sai smiled as he noticed this and introduced his friends to the boy, "This is Akamichi Chouji, Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and his triplets Sumiko-chan, Takako-chan, and Takara-chan." Ryuu smiled at the babies who were gurgling, eating and pulling their dad's hair, respectively.

The two's food arrived not long after and he ate quickly, remembering what Sai had promised and eager to get started training. The ninja had easily started and held a conversation and Ino helped rock the babies to sleep as they talked. Ryuu remembered too late that he was supposed to take medicine before he ate and when the food didn't settle in his stomach. He quickly tried to hide away his grimace of pain and discomfort and tugged on Sai's sleeve gently. "Sai, I need to use the bathroom."

Sai nodded and pointed to a door a few feet away while still trying to be polite and stay in the one-sided conversation Ino was holding with him and Shikamaru.

Ryuu slipped of his seat and slowly made his way to the men's room, trying not to upset his stomach any further by quick or sudden movements.

Sai's expression was a bit worried, but Ino voiced his thoughts almost perfectly, "Where is Ryuu? He's been gone for a long time."

"He said that he needed to use the restroom." Sai replied, although they all knew _where_he had gone.

"Maybe someone should go and check on him…" Chouji offered. He had finished his fare share of the meat and was satiated for the moment, instead worrying a little for Ryuu.

Sai nodded, and stood, walking to the bathroom. The group watched him go in, and then come out a couple minutes later. He reported back and stood at the end of the table with a slightly perplexed look on his face. "He seems to have gotten sick and has vomited." He explained unemotionally.

"And you just left him there?" Ino practically yelled, gaining the entire restaurant's attention, her medical and maternal instincts kicking in. "What are you thinking?"

Sai gave a concise nod, "I'm not quite sure what to do in this situation."

Ino sighed, calming down, "Alright, I'll go get him." She left the table and walked into the men's room, returning promptly carrying Ryuu, his head resting on her shoulder and his hands around her neck. "I checked over him and he seems all right, if tired and sick to his stomach. You should take him back to Iruka-sensei; he just needs to rest for now."

Sai nodded and took Ryuu from Ino, holding the boy in a similar position. The boy was very light, felt like a rag doll, and he was easy enough to carry. He made his way back to the Hokage Tower and into the mission office, reporting to Tsunade and a very worried Iruka what had happened, by which time Ryuu had fallen fast asleep.

"Alright, so we've got the rice, eggs, onions, radishes, and tomatoes, now all we need to get is some wasabi paste, fish, and soy sauce." Iruka read aloud what was on his list. He nodded to himself, checking to make sure Ryuu was still standing next to him.

The market, no matter what day, no matter the hour, was always busy and packed with people. It was also very loud with people calling out prices trying to get villagers to buy their products, and it was also very colorful with a wide variety of items on display to be sold. It wasn't so hard to keep track of his little charge, though – he was used to watching 30 children all day, so watching one in a busy market wasn't so bad.

They had already been to a couple of shops, but Ryuu didn't mind all too much. Iruka had already helped him train a little bit after school, like he had promised, and then taken him to get a snack at Ichiraku's as an added bonus! Thus, he didn't mind helping Iruka buy groceries and carry the bag of vegetables.

"Almost done, Ryuu-kun, we've just got a few more things to get." Iruka moved down the street, expertly weaving through the throng of people.

Ryuu thought of the whole thing as training, trying to dodge the moving projectiles as quickly as he could without losing sight of the person he was chasing. Eventually, they stopped at a vendor where a wide variety of fish were laid out on ice. Iruka ordered and began talking to a mother of one of his student while Ryuu stood beside him. He would admit that he_was_starting to get a bit bored, it wasn't so bad when they were moving, but it was when he had to stand still and wait in lines or when someone recognized Iruka and began chatting. He glanced around at all the people, wondering offhandedly how many there were packed into that small street, when he noticed an oddly familiar mop of hair moving through the crowd several feet away. He inched forward, trying to get a better view and, to his luck, a small gap formed, just large enough for him to see who the hair belonged to. His eyes opened wide and a gaping smile appeared on his slightly shocked features. He forgot about the bag of vegetables he was holding, letting it slip from his fingers and fall to the ground, and ran forward. He head Iruka call his name from behind, but ignored it as he dodged through the crowd and out of his caretaker's sight.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: ** Wow, this story is getting interesting, even for me! Brace yourself for the big climax! Unfortunately, for any of you who know anything about stories and plot lines, you know that after the climax the story quickly wraps up and comes to a close. Therefore, there are only about 2 – 4 more chapters until the end of the story! –Le gasp– Commence the sobbing. Sorry that this chapter is a bit short *cough*half its usual length*cough* but I didn't want to move on to the next scene yet or else it might take away from the dramatics of this chapter. So, you'll just have to wait. :B

**Shinyuu: Chapter 11**

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Ryuu shoved past the throng of shoppers that crowded the street, running as fast of his little legs would take him and not afraid to shove his elbows into people's sides to get through. Finally, he got past the majority of people to a slightly clearer area. "Gaara!" Ryuu yelled with a smile, his eyes bright with excitement.

Gaara paused, hearing his name called, and turning to see a young brown-headed boy running towards him. His three ANBU guards tensed, ready to jump at the running boy to protect their kage, if need be. Gaara waved them down with a slight signal of the hand, a warm, uncommon smile growing on his face.

"Gaara-ojisan!"

Gaara bent down and caught Ryuu when he ran and jumped into his arms, hugging him tenderly before standing, holding Ryuu on his hip so that they were on eye level. He couldn't help but feel warm inside at the smile Ryuu was giving him, and ruffled Ryuu's hair.

Laughing, Ryuu ruffled Gaara's hair back (as was their tradition) and asked excitedly, "Ojisan, what are you doing in Konoha?"

Gaara opened his mouth to reply, but closed it again when he heard someone else call Ryuu's name, worry deeply laced within the voice. He could see the brown ponytailed head of a man dodging through the crowds from the direction Ryuu had come. He looked to his nephew expectantly.

Ryuu blushed and laughed nervously.

Iruka rushed into the clearing, carrying the grocery bags, including the one Ryuu had dropped. "Ah, K-Kazekage-sama," Iruka stuttered, thoroughly surprised, giving a short bow.

Gaara returned the gesture with a nod of the head.

Iruka was not deterred long, however, the strict school teacher he was, "Ryuu-kun, don't run off like that. I had no idea where you were going, and," he added, holding out the slightly dirty bag Ryuu had been in charge of, "you could have damaged the food."

Gaara gave Ryuu a reprimanding look and set Ryuu back on the ground.

The boy quickly walked over and accepted his bag back, "Sorry, Iruka-sensei." Ryuu mumbled, looking down and shuffling his feet.

Iruka smiled, setting his hand on Ryuu's head and pulling him into his stomach, giving a half hug. "It's alright, just make sure not to do it again – you gave me a real scare." He looked up to the watching kage, "What brings you to Konoha, Kazekage-sama?"

"I came to visit my sister, Temari. I had also heard that there was a fatal sickness in Kouhei's village and that Kouhei and Ryuu had come here. I'm on my way to the Hokage tower right now."

"Ah," Iruka replied. He glanced down at Ryuu who was staring at Gaara hopefully. "Ryuu, if it's all right with him, why don't you go with your uncle and hang out with him for the day. I'm sure it's been a while since you've seen him."

The young boy looked up, his eyes wide and happy, at his caretaker then at his uncle.

Gaara smiled and nodded softly, catching hold of Ryuu's hand once the boy had handed off his grocery bag, and headed again to the Hokage tower, giving a small wave bag to the teacher.

Iruka watched them go with a loving smile on his face, watching the young boy talks speedily about all that had happened to him and his father recently while holding on to the red headed kage's hand.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Ryuu was growing impatient. They were waiting – Iruka-sensei, Gaara-ojisan, and the Hokage-sama – by the gates of Konoha. It was very early in the morning. Gaara-ojisan had woke him up before the sun and they had gathered and met outside the gate right as the sun was stretching over top the horizon. The Hokage, and even Iruka-sensei, had told him that his dad would be arriving at any minutes. However, the minutes kept passing and passing. It seemed more like hours since they had arrived at the gates.

Iruka had let him stay the night with his uncle the previous night, who in turn had stayed the night at his sister, Temari's, house. He had found out that Gaara's sister was married to the lazy father he had met a few days ago while with Sai, and was able to play with his triplets. It had been a lot of fun, almost like having his own baby sisters. There was even a boy that stayed the night around his own age. The boy was not Shikamaru and Temari's son, Gaara-ojisan had explained to him, but the son of Shikamaru's deceased sensei. Whatever deceased meant, Ryuu figured that the Shikamaru was the boy's uncle or something, just like Gaara-ojisan was his uncle, even though Tousan had told him before that they were not related.

"Ojisan, when is Tousan and Ninja-san going to get here?" He whined, looking up to his uncle with big eyes.

Gaara looked down, face emotionless, and patted the top of Ryuu's disheveled hair. "Soon," was his only reply.

Ryuu sighed, slumping his shoulders. An unwanted yawn escaped his lips and he settled himself for more waiting. Several minutes later –it felt like hours to him –Iruka spotted a group of people heading down the dirt path towards them. It took a few more minutes until they walked all the way up to the gates. Kouhei was waving with a big smile on his face, with Sasuke walking right next to him, hands in his pockets and looking unemotional.

Ryuu smiled and was about to dash forward to meet his father, when Gaara held him back by the shoulder. He looked up to his uncle questioningly, and was quite confused to find a frown marring the red head's face. He had never seen his uncle frown before. Gaara usually had an emotionless expression or one of his small, caring smiles, but never a frown. Ryuu looked to his father again, just as the group was passing through the giant gates, to see half a dozen identical looking ANBU guards appear around his father. His eyes widened slightly and he tried to pull out of his uncle's grasp.

"Otousan!" Ryuu screamed, tears brimming in his eyes as his father struggled against the ANBU. If he had been paying attention, he would've seen most of the group his father was with wearing half guilty expressions. Sasuke was yelling at the ANBU, threatening to attack, while the Hokage was threatening Sasuke with imprisonment if he intervened.

"What are you doing?! Why are you taking Tousan?!" Ryuu sobbed, he tried pulling out of Gaara's hand, but the hand pulled him in close. He couldn't help but desperately hit the big, strong chest of his uncle, trying to get out of the red head's grasp and rush to his father's aid.

Gaara looked to Iruka and as if by some sort of telepathy, asked Iruka to take Ryuu while he spoke to the Hokage. Iruka nodded, seeing that he was needed, and carefully peeled the sobbing boy from the Kazekage's embrace, squatting down and smothering him in a hug of his own.

The boy was completely broken and crying uncontrollably, "I-Iruka-sen-sensei, why are they taking Tousan? And wh-where is Kasan? Tousan said he was bringing Kasan back."

"Shhh," Iruka soothed, gently rubbing the boys back as he watched the proceedings in front of him.

Gaara marched straight up to the Hokage, an emotionless expression on his features. To anyone that knew him, they would easily be able to tell you that the Kazekage was extremely pissed and would have warned you to keep a large distance. "Hokage-sama," Gaara stated, stepping up to the woman and crossing his arms intimidatingly. The woman looked at the much younger kage. "I demand an explanation for you actions against Kouhei. Caution yourself, your answer determines Konoha's and Suna's future alliances."

The woman was about to answer when another angry shout was pointed her way.

"Tsunade, what the hell is this about?!" Sasuke yelled heatedly, his red Sharingan spinning wildly in his anger. The ANBU had disappeared with Kouhei and now he had a bone to pick with the old, busty Hokage.

"As I was about to tell Gaara-sama, here is not the place to discuss this matter. We should relocate to my office. Besides, I do believe you have another matter to tend to first, Sasuke." Tsunade explained, nodding in the direction of the crying boy, who upon hearing Sasuke yell, was struggling to get out of Iruka's grasp and to the raven headed ninja.

Sasuke's eyes softened immediately and the spinning red eyes dissolved into obsidian pools.

"Meet in my office in fifteen minutes and I will discuss this matter with all of you." She turned to the remaining members of the mission, "I expect all of you to be there as well." She stated with a final nod, before turning and heading down the path towards the Hokage tower to hopefully get in another bottle of sake before dealing with this mess.

Sasuke turned from where the Hokage and Kazekage stood, calming himself with a deep breath before walking towards the struggling boy.

Iruka finally released the boy and Ryuu ran as fast as he could to his next preferred form of comfort after his father (of course there was his uncle, but he usually acted awkwardly in these kinds of situations).

Sasuke picked up the confused and scarred boy and held him against his chest as the boy cried his heart out on his shoulder. "Let's go home, Ryuu, okay?" He asked as comfortingly as he could manage. He was an Uchiha, after all, and not especially suited to such situations. He tried to remember what his mother would do to him when he was particularly distraught. The boy nodded into the crook of his neck and he began walking towards the Uchiha district. The raven locked eyes with his academy instructor, beckoning him to follow and take continue to watch Ryuu after he got the boy settled.

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"Well?" Sasuke growled, sending a shriveling glare towards the blond hokage. Next to him stood a just as angry and scowling Kazekage.

The rest of the team from the mission stood to the side and behind them, filling the small open area of the office.

The Hokage slowly straightens and moved a few stacks of paper to the side of desk, seemingly immune to the two fearsome glares. "I have reason to believe that Kouhei is a threat to the people and security of Konoha."

"On what basis?" Sasuke grinds out, struggling to resist his urge to jump over the large wooden desk and slit the old woman's throat.

Kakashi took a step forward, drawing the raven's and the kage's attention. Strangely enough, his perverted orange book had not been pulled out for the meeting, something that meant Kakashi was extremely serious. "While we were in Kouhei's village, he was exhibiting strange behavior. I overheard him speaking to a pair of clones he had created, telling them to destroy the 'evidence.' He also was strangely protective over a certain wooden box and scroll. I was able to look inside of the box and found, among other thing, a stack of high level jutsu and instructions to use them. And, as we all were told, Kouhei is not a ninja. It is highly suspicious that he would posses any jutsu, let alone techniques of that caliber. Not only that, but a group of rogue ninja attacked us and used Konohamaru as a hostage so that we would hand Kouhei over. During our fight a strange masked ninja assisted us. We were all surprised at the ninja's sudden presence and willingness to help, everyone, that is, except for Kouhei. As it turned out, the ninja was a clone the entire time. I'm almost certain that the clone belonged to Kouhei. I can't think of any other possibility."

Sasuke ignored Kakashi long banter of reasons to suspect his new friend. "So? That doesn't mean Kouhei is a danger to Konoha." He spat.

Tsunade sighed, feeling a splitting headache forming at the front of her head, "Kouhei, for some reason, was the only person in his entire village that didn't get sick and would have been the only survivor if he had not brought his son to Konoha. His son's sickness was a very good excuse to get into the village. This in itself, although is highly suspicious, but then he blatantly lied to us by telling us that he was not a ninja. I knew this from the time I first examined his health at the hospital and Neji and Shino have confirmed this. Kouhei had extremely large chakra coils and store of chakra. Some of this is natural, so he is from a strong ninja family, but some is also from years of intense training. Ryuu, too, has large chakra coils from his heritage, but a very small supply of chakra, which means that he has had no ninja training. Kakashi's report only proved to solidify my suspicion. So yes, to answer your question, Sasuke, Kouhei is a big possible threat to Konoha, especially with such big chakra reserves. He lied to us and we have no idea as to why or his intentions."

From a logical point of view, Tsunade's and Kakashi's explanations made sense, but he just would picture the kind , caring, and loving father, Kouhei, as some undercover ninja plotting the destruction of Konoha or its people. It just didn't fit. "Kouhei isn't that kind of person." Was all he could thing to say.

"It is also suspicious that just after Kakashi-sensei overheard Kouhei telling his clone to report to their 'supervisor,' that Gaara comes to Konoha." Neji spoke up confidently, ignoring the fact that the jinchuriki's rage and deadly gaze was now pointed at him, or the fact that, legally, the Kazekage could have him thrown in jail for the accusation.

Stubbornly, Sasuke repeats and assures them that Kouhei is the good guy.

"It's got to be a coincidence! Kouhei is one of the nicest people I've ever met and Gaara was one of Naruto-neesan's friends. I'd wage my family's honor on the fact that Gaara wouldn't consciously try to go against Konoha."

Everyone stared at a fuming Konohamaru, his words striking each one of them deeply. Naruto was still a sensitive topic among all of them. Gaara seemed to calm just a bit as the boy's trust in him. Tsunade looked a bit hurt by the sudden bringing up of Naruto. Sasuke, looked downcast and depressed, and was shaking with what everyone thought to be anger. The rest grew quiet, as memories or conflicting thoughts filled their mind.

Tsunade is the first to recover, quietly ending the discussion in an assertive manner, "What's done is done. We will continue to keep Kouhei in prison until he can be interrogated and a concessive decision had been made. In the meantime, Sasuke, Ryuu will continue to stay with you so that your ANBU guard will be able to keep an eye on him as well." She turned her attention to the silent red head, "Kazekage-sama, for the time being, I ask that you refrain from seeing either Kouhei or Ryuu until this whole matter had been cleared up."

Gaara frowned slightly, but nodded nonetheless.

"I expect full mission report from each one of you by the morning," she directed at Yamato, Sakura, Neji, Konohamaru, Sasuke, and Kakashi. "You all are dismissed until further notice." Before everyone had left, "Kakashi, I would like to speak with a while longer as well as see the box and scroll you found in Kouhei's pack."

The copy ninja nodded and waited in the room until everyone else had left, before pulling the items out of a pocket and setting them on the desk and he began giving his full report on the situation.


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: **Now introducing [cue the drum roll] Uzumaki Naruto! eventhoughit'schapter12andthestoryisnearlyover, we finally get to see a glimpse of him, even if it is just a memory :D More of him later though…

P.S. Starting _some _revisions. Now that it's been pointed out to me and I've been enlightened, I can't stand all that inconsistent Japanese in the beginning chapters. It's driving me nuts!

P.S.S. I'm super sorry for the long wait. I've been very busy with sports everyday this summer (tennis, swimming, and taekwondo) and spent most of my free time improving my mad drawing skills :p I could make excuses that piled a mile high as to why I haven't written much recently, but I'm going to start doing it more now that school is starting (tomorrow! yikes!)

**Shinyuu: Chapter 12**

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Sasuke returned home late that night. He needed to go to the village gates and sit. After all, be had been gone from the village for nearly a week; an entire week in which he felt guilty about being too preoccupied to be there for his friend. He had much time to make up, and decided to stay until well after the sun had gone down and the stars shone brightly overhead.

_He could hear the loud blond walk down the dark, echoing corridors of the prison long before he could see his teammate standing in front of his cell accompanied by one of the ANBU guards. He didn't care; he made a point to ignore the blond and brooded on his bed in the corner of his small space._

"_Sasuke, I brought some food. I had to fight with Tsunade-baachan, but eventually she agreed to let me have lunch down here with you!" Naruto explained happily._

_Sasuke looked over his arms to the obnoxious blond who's loud voice was multiplying off the confined walls and ringing his ears, just noticing the container with what he assumed was the 'lunch' the idiot was talking about. The ANBU guard shot a cold warning towards him before leaving, shocking him slightly as normally an ANBU was required to stay with the visitor. _

_Naruto set the container down on the floor and pulled out a large red bowl with black and gold designs on the side. He removed the lid and steam rushed out along with the strong aroma. The blond slowly fit it through the bars and held it out to Sasuke. "Here, you are hungry, right? I wasn't sure what flavor you would want, so I just got you miso, the same as me." _

_Sasuke stared at the blond, not showing any signs of moving. Sure, he was hungry and yes, the prison food sucked, but he was still a little angry with Naruto for bringing him back. There were still things he had wanted to do before he returned to Konoha. And he would have returned to Konoha eventually, after he was sure he was strong enough. If only the stupid blond could have waited one or two more years, he would have come back on his own and wouldn't have had to sit in prison for several years and then be guarded by ANBU and be under house arrest. His punishment had just been given the day before and he was a bit sour about the length of the punishment. _

"_Well," Naruto prompted, "are you going to take it or not?" He asked, a slightly annoyed look on his face as he continued holding the ramen through the bars. "Cause if you don't want it, I'll eat it myself while sitting right here in front of you."_

_Sasuke sighed and slowly unfolded himself off his bed. He wouldn't pass up the bowl of delicious smelling food if his annoying teammate was still going to stay and bother him. Taking the ramen was a much better option. Walking over, he carefully took the very hot bowl from his friend. _

_Naruto smiled brightly and dug out the other bowl for himself, plopping down right there in front of Sasuke to eat. He pulled out a set of chop sticks and gave a hearty "Ikidakimasu" before digging into his bowl._

_Sasuke raised an eyebrow, sitting down as well, although in a much more dignified manner, and cleared his throat. The blond looked up. "Aren't you going to give me some chop sticks to eat with?" Sasuke asked cynically._

_The blond looked sheepish and rubbed the back of his head. "Ehehe, about that…well, the guards wouldn't let me give you any – something about using them as weapons – so you'll have to just drink it out of the bowl."_

_Sasuke sighed, suppressing an annoyed growl. Slurping his ramen down from the bowl was a very undignified thing to do, especially since he was an Uchiha. He decided to eat it though, it was only Naruto after all, and he really wanted something good to eat rather than the cardboard food he was normally given._

"_I saw Kiba, Shino, Shikimaru, Chouji, Ino, and Sakura on my over. I invited them to join us, but no one wanted to come. They're still kind of mad that you ditched us for the snake, but they'll probably get over it now that you're back." Naruto drawled._

_Sasuke could care less if anyone was mad at him for leaving. Everyone had visited him after he had first arrived about a week previous, but no one spoke much except for his team and the Hyuuga girl who was just being polite. Since then only Kakashi, Sakura, and Naruto had visited willingly. Out of the three Naruto had come by the most often, coming by nearly every day and staying just to chat or keep him company, even if he practically ignored the blond the entire time in return._

"_I'm going to be gone for a while," Naruto spoke up again. There was an odd quality in his voice that made Sasuke snap out of his thoughts and listen to the blond. "I accepted an assassination mission and won't be able to visit. I don't know how long it's going to take, but as soon as I come back, I'll make sure to visit."_

_Sasuke frowned, not liking how the blond had suddenly sombered, "Hn."_

_The blond looked up, smiling as if he hadn't just been completely serious, "Well I should go. I have a lot of packing to do and everything to be ready to leave for the mission tomorrow morning." He stood up, reaching out for Sasuke's bowl since he too was finished eating and packed them back in the container. Naruto paused to look at Sasuke, again growing strangely serious, "I'm sorry about your punishment Sasuke. Tsunade-baachan said that she couldn't let you go unpunished. I tried to make her compromise, but she wouldn't budge." The blonde looked down, avoiding Sasuke's eyes, "I'm sorry that I brought you back just for you to get punished. A long time ago, when we were first assigned on a team together, I promised myself that I would let any of my precious people get hurt. And here, I dragged you back to Konoha and caused you this burden."_

_Sasuke frowned again. The blond had been saying that every time he visited. "Naruto…" He called, reaching out to hold the blond in place. Before he could though, Naruto took off down the hallway, not even a wave in goodbye._

Finally, he sighed heavily and jumped down from the top of the, now closed, gates, landing lightly next to his ANBU guards. His two new ANBU (Neji, Yamato, and Konohamaru had been relieved outside of Tsunade's office and only two new ANBU had been assigned since Kouhei was now in prison). Sasuke ignored them, still wrapped in his thoughts, his hands in his pockets and brow furrowed. He didn't watch where he was going, instead relying on his muscle memory and natural instinct from walking the same path every day for the past several years. He doesn't even notice walking into his house, or when Iruka gave a report on Ryuu and waved goodnight. He silently slid into bed, lying wide awake for hours.

He had finally been able to doze off into a fitful, light sleep when he heard the soft patter of small bare feet, slowly walking through the hallway and stop outside his open door. Even such a small noise woke him from his not-so-restful slumber. He and the ANBU both look to the doorway to find Ryuu standing there pathetically, looking in. Even in the dim moonlight that shone through the two windows in the room, they could see tears sliding silently down the boy's cheeks and could hear his uneven, hitched breathing, the soft hiccupping and half choking that always followed a heavy crying.

Sasuke sat up, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice from being woken from his none too common sleep, "What's wrong?"

Ryuu tried to get his breathing under control. "I miss my dad," he cried, barely finishing before he burst into more tears and ran to the side of Sasuke's bed, crawling onto Sasuke's lap and burying his head in his chest while the boy's arms tightened themselves around the raven's waist.

Sasuke's eyes widen slightly in surprise at the boy's sudden breakdown and he sits stiffly with the boy crying on him. He looked over to the ANBU helplessly, asking the female (who surely knew what to do more than he did) for help.

She silently motions for Sasuke to wrap his arms around the boy and comfort him. Sasuke follows the orders, gently moving his hand in a circle on the boy's back as he was shown.

Ryuu starts to calm down, his silent tears only interrupted occasionally by an unwanted hiccup. "Ninja-san…"

"Hn," Sasuke replied, never stopping the motion of his hand.

"I like Konoha and the new friends I made, but I don't want them to hurt my dad or keep him locked up. What if they never let me see him? I miss him, and my mom too."

"Hn," Sasuke replied softly.

"Ninja-san, it hurts…right here." Ryuu said, moving his hand up to his chest starting to sob anew.

Even though Sasuke couldn't see, he knew the boy was talking about his heart. Yes, he knew; he knew that feeling all too well. So well that his heart had once lost all its feeling. It had started when his clan was slaughtered, and closed off completely with a hard outer shell when Naruto had suddenly left him. But now, even if the process was slow, a small crack in the self-made protection around his heart was forming and slowly growing bigger as these new people entered his life. It was risky to allow such a thing to happen, yes; he was making himself open to even more hurt, but for some unexplainable reason, the more he pried open that emotionless front, the better he felt. He knew he did not want Ryuu to do the same thing that he had started all those years ago and vowed to be there for the boy.

Distracted by his thoughts, he had neglected to notice the distraught boy had started crying again, that is, until the ANBU walked over and knelt down at the side of the bed. She gently rubbed his back, the warmth in her fingers flowing into the boy.

Ryuu pulled his head away from Sasuke to look at whom the new hand belonged to. It reminded him an awful lot of his mothers comforting hand whenever he would have a nightmare or get hurt playing outside. The ANBU was wearing here stark white mask, but that didn't bother him, nor did it hide the comforting and reassuring aura that she emitted. "I'm sure you father will be all right. Everyone is just a little confused and scared at the moment, but the Hokage and the counsel are going to get everything straightened out soon."

Sasuke noticed the complete lack of promises in the woman's words and the fact that she didn't say Kouehi would come back. The boy didn't notice these things though, and looked up to Sasuke questioningly to see if the ANBU's words were true. Sasuke's eyes flickered to the ANBU momentarily and then back to Ryuu, giving a small nod.

Ryuu sighed, a sad yet resigned look on his face, before snuggling once again against Sasuke, sitting sideways in the raven's lap so that his head rested against the man's chest and his legs lay on the bed. This was how his father used to hold him at night after he had woken up from a nightmare and his mother had comforted him, his father would sit in bed with him, holding his close until he fell back to sleep.

Sasuke looked, dumbfounded, to the ANBU who simply smiled behind her mask and returned to her position. He silently cursed her for not giving him any more hints. He settled himself to hold Ryuu for a while longer until the exhausted boy fell asleep in his arms. He scoots off the bed and starts to stand up, but stops when Ryuu fists the front of his shirt and tiredly blinks open his eyes.

"I wanna sleep with you tonight, Ninja-san." Ryuu slurred, looking up into black obsidian pools pleadingly.

Sasuke sighed, slightly annoyed, knowing that he definitely wouldn't get any sleep if Ryuu slept with him, but gave in, laying the boy down on the bed and pulling the covers up over him before crawling to the other side of the bed to lay down. He lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling to think for a while. Sasuke frowned, unseen by the boy, when Ryuu scooted up next to him, resting an arm on Sasuke's stomach while laying his head on Sasuke's chest. Sasuke grumbles to himself silently at having to stay in the same position and in such close contact all night, but lets the boy stay and drift off to sleep. He knew he wouldn't be getting any more sleep, but stayed put, occasionally, moving his hand through Ryuu's tangled hair.


End file.
